Firsts
by JamesPottersPixie
Summary: When best friends James and Ryan make a promise to each other before even starting Hogwarts they never dream that it could cause them problems in the future. Especially with the new best friend that they each make once there.
1. The Beginning

"James Potter! You get your bloody ass back here NOW or else!" screamed the angry red head who was chasing him around the yard.

The boy in question stopped instantly, not because of her threat, but because of the way that she had said it.

"You just said 'bloody ass'. What the hell is that? You never . . . ooph!"

James never got to finish his sentence, as he was tackled by a petite red head. They rolled for a while then came to a stop with Ryan, the red head, strattling James' stomach.

"If only I had some cake, then this would be perfect."

Ryan got a far off look while she remembered when they had first met. Ryan's family had just moved into their new house. Their neighbors had a little boy around Ryan's age and they had been invited over for the boy's birthday party. Ryan walked up to a group of boys and asked if she could play with them because she didn't want to play dolls with the rest of the girls. One boy with messy black hair started to make fun of her saying that she wasn't really a girl if she didn't play with dolls. She ignored him and one of the other boys asked what her name was. She innocently answered with 'Ryan Peyton' and the first boy started to laugh again. 'So you are a boy because Ryan is a boy's name.' Ryan loved her name so this made her extremely mad. 'I'll show you boy.' she said and tackled him, both rolling down a hill. They came to a stop right next to the table with a huge cake in the shape of a four on it with Ryan sitting on the boy's stomach. She didn't even know his name. Ryan did the first thing she could think of and stuck her hand in the bottom part of the cake and shoved it in his face. Then, for good measure, she stood up and shoved a bit down his pants.

She smiled in remembrance. She had only learned his name and that it was his party when both their mothers had started yelling. Both their dads had been to busy laughing. Ryan and James had been inseparable since that day.

"But that's not the point. Moving on. How the hell could you net tell me! It's only a HUGE lie that you've been telling me for seven years!"

"I couldn't tell you, they made me promise to keep my mouth shut! At the time you didn't know that you were a witch or that you were adopted. You know I would never willing lie to you R.P.!"

James sounded desperate now. He hated when Ryan was mad at him, she was like his sister. They had been best friends and inseparable since age four.

Ryan could feel herself softening towards James. He was the one person that she could never stay mad at. Especially when he called her by her nickname. He was the only one besides her daddy, well her adoptive daddy, she thought, that called her R.P., just like she was the only one who called him J.J. Ryan loved her name. Ryan Peyton Alyssa Kahlyn Kogan. But no on e called her by her full first name unless she was in trouble, which is why she loved her nickname so much. It was a close to her full name as it got.

"I'm not mad, just promise no more secrets from each other."

"Promise. We'll always . . ."

Once again James didn't get to finish his though, this time because his and Ryan's mothers came outside.

"Well now, isn't this an interesting position to be found in?" Mrs. Potter said.

Then she and Mrs. Kogan walked off. They were too used to seeing Ryan and James in positions like this to care. It was nothing new to them and they meant nothing by it.

Ryan turned back to James. "Promise me. No more lies or secrets. Ever."

"Promise," James replied. "We'll tell each other the truth no matter what and we'll share everything."

And they did. Never again did Ryan or James lie to each other. But little did they know that some of the promises that they were going to make each other before going to school would came back to haunt them. Especially with their new friends.


	2. Hallway Encounter and Slipups

CHAPTER 2: Hallway Encounters and Slip-Ups

Seventh Year.

James sighed and ruffled his already messy hair. Ryan and Sirius had never gotten along, per say. The two had a unique relationship. They loved to fight one another. That's all the two of them did and it got on James' nerves. It had started in first year. James and Sirius had met on the train and had instantly become best friends. The fighting had started with little things like who was James' best friend and who got to spend more time with him, but has escalated around fourth year. Even though he denied it violently, the fights had gotten worse when Sirius noticed that boys were becoming interested in Ryan. That's what had brought on the latest fight. Ryan had been dating a seventh year Ravenclaw for almost three months, which was a while for her, and Sirius was convinced that he was using her.

"He's only after one thing and you know it! And he'll only get bored with you after you give it to him." Sirius yelled in the middle of the hallway

"Shows what you know. Just because sex is all you want from a girl doesn't mean that every boy is like that. I'll have you know that Finn has never pressured me."

By now Ryan was so mad that she wasn't bothering to try and keep her voice down anymore. Quite a crowd had gathered around trying to hear what the latest Sirius/Ryan blow-up was about. James and Remus were both inside the little circle of empty space around Sirius and Ryan, seeing as on one wanted to get close and be in the line of fire, and were trying to convince Ryan to lower her voice, Sirius to shut up, and both of them to take it to the common room. But both were studiously ignored.

"That's because he knows that you're just a virgin ice queen who will never give it up." Sirius screamed, not caring that he was completely contradicting his earlier point of Ryan's boyfriend only wanting one thing.

Ryan let out a laugh. "Ha. That's what you think. I'm not even a virgin, so once again you know absolutely freaking nothing about what you speak of."

The entire hall went deadly silent and on one moved. Everyone was just staring at Ryan wondering if she would go on.

Remus looked mildly curious, yet also vaguely pissed. Who had dared touch the girl that the Marauders had declared as "off-limits"? Sure Ryan dated but all of those boys know not to cross the Marauders on their "Ryan Rules". They were the most enforced rules the Marauders have, and they have a lot of rules. The rules were simple:

1. **IF **the Marauders approve of you then you may date Ryan.

2. There is no touching. Ever. Touching results in broken limbs.

3. All kissing must last no longer than five seconds, and must take place in a well lit, public place.

4. No one must ever tell Ryan about the "Ryan Rules". No matter what. That would be bad. For everyone involved.

Whoever Ryan has lost it to had broken Rules 2 AND 3. There was sure as hell touching involved and it better not have been in a public place. PLUS there was most likely long kissing.

"This boy is dead." Remus decided.

Sirius was in shock. His mind frozen, trying to process what he had just learned.

James just looked uncomfortable.

Just then three girls broke out of the crowd and grabbed Ryan, one on each side and one behind, dragging her away from the masses. No one dared try and stop these four girls when they looked like this. But they did get more than a few appreciative glances. Ryan let out a small chuckle at this, particularly because of what happened at the beginning of her first year.

***FLASHBACK***

"Ryan Kogan" called Professor McGonagall, waiting for someone to come up and get sorted. It came as a shock when a tiny GIRL with fiery red hair came forward. McGonagall actually said to her, "I'm sorry honey but you have to wait your turn. Right now it's Ryan Kogan's turn." Ryan laughed along with James and everyone else that they had sat with on the train. "But Professor, I am Ryan Kogan." Everyone was stunned when she took the sorting have from McGonagall's hand, sat on the stool, and put it on her own head. It had barely hit her head when the hat called out "Gryffindor!"

The next week was much of the same. Even after the "Sorting Scene" as she had dubbed it, people were still expecting her to be a boy when they heard her name, and were shocked when they saw that she wasn't.

Ryan go so sick of it that at the end of the first week, in the middle of dinner, she had stood on the table and yelled for everyone's attention. "Hi. My name is Ryan Peyton Kogan. And I am a girl. You would all do well to remember that. Thank you." Then she primly sat back down and finished her dinner. Needless to say no one mistook her for a boy again.

***END FLASHBACK***

Ryan laughed again when she thought about how no one would mistake her for a boy now, no matter what her name. Actually, none of the girls had to worry about that anymore. Taylor and Alex had had the same problem as Ryan in the beginning. Not that any of the girls had ever looked like boys, people just judged by their names. All in all the girls made quite the picture storming down the hallway, ignoring everyone in their path.

In the middle you had Ryan Peyton Kogan. She has long red hair that fell in soft, loose curls down to the top of her bottom, but she always wears it up, so only James knows how long it is. It's usually covered by a hat of some sort and today it was a cowboy hat. Her face was dominated by huge violet eyes that were surrounded by long dark lashes. Ryan was the shortest of the girls at only 5'4", but she was also the curviest by far. She tends to cover up her curves, much to everyone's disappointment, with loose layer and prefers long sleeves. She has a temper to match her hair but is easily distracted, so you could make her mad very quickly but she soon forgets about it. The only person that she seems to be able to stay mad at is Sirius. She is very outspoken, opinionated and argumentative and is one of those people who doesn't care what anyone else thinks of her. Her philosophy is: Like her or don't, no skin off her nose either way.

On Ryan right was Cassiopeia Tanner, more commonly know as Peia. Peia is the trouble maker of the group. She looks very innocent with her long straight blonde hair and huge chocolate brown eyes. She towers over Ryan and is rail thin without looking sickly and had just the right amount of curves for being so tall and skinny. Peia tends to be a little mischievous and is the mastermind all of the pranks and plans that the girls come up with. All four have been in a three year prank war with the Marauders but the boys have no idea who they are competing with and Peia comes up with the most brilliant ideas to get back at the self-proclaimed Kings of Pranking. Peia also plays up the innocent look and act so the she can insure that she and the other girls, mostly Ryan, aren't caught.

On the left was Alex Carlyle, a.k.a. Al or A.C, and Al is the peacemaker of the girls. She is the ultimate girly-girl with white blonde hair cut just below her chin. Her hair has bold red highlights with choppy layers and long side-swept bangs. Big, soft sky blue eyes complete her look. She also has the figure that is very pixie like. She's only a little taller than Ryan, very delicate looking with gentle curves. Al is constantly flirting but in a fun friendly way that causes everyone to like her. With her cheerleader type peppiness, she can't stand to see anyone upset or unhappy.

Behind the group was Taylor Zahara or Tay. Tay is the problem solver. With her short black hair and clear bottle green eyes she has a very reserved beauty about her. Tay is about average height and not quiet as curvy as Ryan. She's the one in the group that is quiet and shy. Tay is very sensitive and everyone goes to her with problems and secrets because they know that they can trust her with anything. Everyone came to Tay if they needed someone to give them an honest opinion about something, and as smart as she is, she's very naïve about some things.

While all four of the girls are very close to each other, if they had to pick one that was their best friend it would be Ryan and Peia and Tay and Al. Their personalities just seem to mesh well together. Peia can control Ryan's temper and Tay is less reserved around Al.

By the time that the girls reached the common room Peia, Tay and Al were finally coming out of their shock. Not only had Ryan just announced details of her sex life to pretty much the whole school, but she hadn't told them that she wasn't a virgin anymore. It wasn't fair, they had all told her, so the girls were bound and determined to get some answers. As soon as they gave the Fat Lady the password Ryan was pushed into the fluffy armchair closest to the fire.

"Spill. Now." Peia demanded.

It was only then that Ryan really grasped what had just happened. Before it had all be tainted red by her fury at Sirius. Realizing exactly what she had said, Ryan started babbling. "Holy shit! I can't believe I said that. I wasn't supposed to say that. I was just so mad at Sirius for running his mouth, and . . . oh my god I just announced to the school that I'm not a virgin. I might as well have just started yelling about the promise. Holy shit. He's going to kill me, never speak to me . . ."

SMACK!!

Tay slapped Ryan across the face. Everyone just looked at her. Tay was the quiet one, the passive one, the 'violence is not the answer' one. She just shrugged.

"Thanks Tay, I needed that."

"No problem. Now do you want to tell us what's going on?"

"Yeah! Like why the hell you didn't tell any of use that you lost your virginity. Who? When? Where? Why we had to find out with the rest of the school when you admit it to Sirius sodding Black. Aren't best friends supposed to know these things before your mortal enemy?" Peia rambled, clearly upset.

Al, sensing how upset Ryan was, walked forward and sank into the chair with her pulling her into a hug. She hated people being upset. "You okay Ry? If you don't want to talk about it right now we understand and can wait until you're ready. We'll be there for you no matter what."

Ryan looked up and gave them all a watery smile, and that's when they knew that something was really wrong. Ryan never cried. "Thanks guys. I wanted to tell you so bad but I couldn't. Before anything else I need to talk to _him_ and then I'll talk to you. I'm sorry."

They all told her thatit was going to be alright before going up to their room to let Ryan think. She sat there for what seemed like forever just staring at the fire worrying about what was going to happen.

She heard the portrait open and close. Ryan could tell that it was him without any problem. Taking a deep breath she turned, looking right into his eyes. Those eyes that could see right through her.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to. Please."

He just stood there looking at her. He shook his head and walked up to his room without saying a word, leaving Ryan, heartbroken, to think about everything that had brought them to this point.

Next Chapter: Flashback. Find out who she was talking to in the commonroom and just what the promise was.


	3. Never Ever?

CHAPTER 3: NEVER EVER?

***FLASHBACK***

James and Ryan were walking together through Diagon Alley. They were both going to be turning eleven soon and going to start Hogwarts in the fall. They had somehow talked James' parents into letting them do their shopping alone. They had already been to Flourish and Blotts, Madam Malkins, the apothecary, Eeylops Owl Emporium, and the exotic pet store. They had gotten all of the requirements and James had gotten a beautiful pure black owl with sapphire eyes at Eeylops, but Ryan wanted something different so she had spent forever in the exotic pet store. Finally she had found the perfect pet. It was a special breed of tiger. It would get no bigger than the size it was born, which was around the size of a large cat or a small puppy, but it would also have the temperament and the mentality of a baby animal. Ryan thought it was perfect, and James thought she was crazy. Now all they needed was to go to Ollivander's for a wand.

They were walking aimlessly around the Alley after getting their wands when James saw two older kids kissing while sitting outside the ice cream shop. As they continued to wander James couldn't get what he had seen out of his head. James could be very observant and he had noticed that some of the older girls were giving him funny looks. Like the looks that his cousin gave the boy down the street when she was visiting. He had also seen the looks that some of the older boys were giving Ryan, who was skipping around the alley in, what James considered, a far to revealing outfit. She was wearing a black tank top with an off the shoulder thin, long-sleeve, white t-shirt over it and a short jean skirt. She paired that with a black beanie on her head and red high top Chuck Taylors. Lucky for James, Ryan didn't notice any of the looks, and if she had, she would have just laughed them off.

When they got back to James' house, he was unusually quiet. Ryan noticed this.

"What's wrong J.J.?"

James just shrugged, unsure if he wanted to talk about this with her. They were laying out on the lawn in front of James' house just looking up at the clouds in the sky. After a couple more minutes of silence he asked, "Did you see those two people outside of the ice cream shop today?"

Ryan thought about it and shook her head. "I didn't see anything unusual. Why?"

James was quiet again. This time for so long that Ryan thought he has fallen asleep or something.

"There were two kids outside it and they were kissing."

"So J.J.? It's not like you've never seen anyone kissing before."

"This was different R.P. It wasn't like Mom kissed Dad. It looked like they were trying to eat each others face. I swear I saw the guy stick his tongue in the girl's mouth!"

"Ewww! That disgusting! Why would anyone want to do that?"

"I don't know. I overheard my cousins Cale and Ashby talking about it last time they were over. They were giggling about Nick from down the street and talking about kissing him. They sounded excited and like they wanted it to happen so I guess it must feel good. They were actually really descriptive about what they thought it would be like."

By now Ryan was starting to get over some of her disgust. If this is what older girls were supposed to do then she wanted to know how. She didn't want the boy to be the one in control or for him to have power over her. She looked James right in the eyes and said, "James, this is important. What EXACTLY did Cale and Ashby say? Word for word."

James was a little confused by her sudden change of heart. "Umm . . . well I don't know exactly . . . but . . . something like . . ."

"Spit it out J.J. This could be a matter of life or death!"

"Well I can't say word for word but Cale was talking about her first kiss and she said that it was perfect. The guy was sweet and didn't just shove his tongue down her throat."

Ryan made a face, some of the disgust returning. "J.J. that's not good enough. I need details."

James didn't want to tell Ryan about this. He didn't like the idea of any boy doing this to HIS R.P. No one was allowed to touch her. Ever. But he figured it he didn't tell her she might hit him. "Well she said that he made her smile before, and one of his hands came up to her cheek and the other was behind her neck playing with her hair and pulling her a little closer. Her eyes closed even before their lips met. She put one hand on his chest and the other was resting on his leg. He didn't thrust his tongue into her mouth, but instead ran it gently along her bottom lip and then nipped at it softly with his teeth making her shiver. Then he slowly pulled away, but not before he ran his thumb over the corner of her lips. She said it was the perfect first kiss. There, is that enough DETAIL for you R.P.?"

Ryan thought about what James had said. "That doesn't sound yucky at all J.J. That actually sounds kind of nice" came her soft reply.

The ten-year old jumped up. "That better not sound nice. Because no boy is going to do that to you. Ever."

"Never ever?" she asked sadly. Ryan thought he meant that no boy was ever going to like her enough to kiss her.

James heard the sadness in her whispered question and softened just a little in his definition of ever. He never could stand to see R.P. sad. "Well, at least not until after you're married. I won't let him. It's not allowed" he said stubbornly.

Ryan was quiet again, just staring up at the clouds. "But J.J., don't you think it would be better if I had my first kiss with someone that I trust and love? Wouldn't that be better than me just picking some random boy and kissing him? Then you wouldn't have to worry about me because you would know him."

James thought about this for a minute. Would it be better for someone he knew to kiss Ryan? He didn't want it to be just some random boy that he didn't know, that was for sure. That boy might hurt his R.P. or take advantage of her or shove his tongue down her throat or touch her. And there was no touching allowed. But would it really be better if it was someone he knew. Probably not. He might get mad at the boy and it would mess with their friendship. 'Face it,' he thought, 'You just don't like the idea of anyone kissing R.P.' "I don't know R.P. I don't know if it would be better."

Ryan moved closer to James. "J.J.?"

"Hmm?"

"Would you be my first kiss?" The question was so quiet that he almost didn't hear it.

James didn't answer right away. Did he really want to kiss R.P.? 'At least this way I don't have to worry about any other boys kissing her. And I can make sure that her first kiss is as perfect as Cale's was. R.P. definitely deserved a perfect first kiss. Plus I could use this as practice for when I kiss a girl for real. I don't want the first girl I kiss to think I don't know what I'm doing.' "Okay R.P. I'll be your first kiss."

James stood up and pulled Ryan to her feet. "Come with me." He led her around the house and into the back yard. Going into the woods behind the house, he took her to their tree house. They had built it with their dads a couple years ago and would often spend the night in it. James thought that it was the perfect place for the perfect kiss. They both sat down on their respective bean bag chairs, Ryan's black with silver stars and James' blue and green tie-dye. They both looked around nervously. Then James realized that they were to far apart to kiss and pulled Ryan onto his bean bag.

James tried to do things just as Cale had described them because that's what R.P. said she thought sounded nice. He smiled at her and told her to close her eyes. When they were closed, he softly put one hand on her cheek. Ryan smiled and leaned into his hand. James' touch always made her feel safe, like nothing bad could ever get her. He pulled her closer to him and put his other hand on her neck, but it felt awkward so he moved it to her lower back. He leaned forward and gently pressed his lips to hers, and her arms moved up to wrap around his neck. James' tongue came out to hesitantly run across her bottom lip. Unconsciously, Ryan opened her mouth and tentatively touched James' tongue with her own, but almost immediately pulled it back in and closed her mouth. James sucked her bottom lip into his mouth and ran let it run lightly through his teeth as he pulled slowly away. His thumb brushed over her bottom lip before he pulled away completely.

Ryan lazily opened her eyes and just looked at James for a minute before launching herself at him and nearly suffocating him with a hug.

"Thanks you so much J.J. You gave me the perfect first kiss. The best first kiss a girl could ask for."

"You're welcome R.P. You deserved the perfect first kiss. Besides I got the perfect first kiss out of it too."

They didn't talk for a long time, just sitting there sharing James' bean bag chair. Ryan was curled up looking out the window with a smile on her face. James was just lying back looking at the ceiling.

Ryan couldn't keep the smile off her face. It was perfect. And she felt so safe with James. She knew that whatever it was that boys and girls did together, she always wanted James to be the first one she did it with. He would make sure that she was safe and happy and she wouldn't have to be scared to give him control over her. "James?"

"Yeah?" She sounded serious, and she had called him James instead of J.J. so he knew to pay attention.

"Can you promise me something?" Ryan asked in a small voice.

"What is it?"

"I want you to be all my firsts. Anything that boys and girls are supposed to do together I want you to be the first one I do it with. Promise J.J.?" she whispered

James didn't even have to think about it. This way he would be to keep her away from other boys. He was her first kiss, and he would be her first boyfriend and first date and anything else they were supposed to do. And it would give him good practice for the for real stuff. Not even a second after the quiet question he answered.

"Promise R.P."

***ENDFLASHBACK***


	4. Bed Buggies and Kisses Goodnight

RECAP: CHAPTER 2:

She heard the portrait open and close. Ryan could tell that it was him without any problem. Taking a deep breath she turned, looking right into his eyes. Those eyes that could see right through her.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to. Please."

He just stood there looking at her. He shook his head and walked up to his room without saying a word, leaving Ryan, heartbroken, to think about everything that had brought them to this point.

CHAPTER 4:Bed Buggies and Kisses Goodnight

After James walked up the stairs, Ryan went back to staring at the fire. She thought back to everything that the two of them had been through together. Even after their promise they had shared everything with each other, nothing had ever been awkward between the two of them.

She remember one night during second year where the two of them had been sitting cross-legged, facing each other on James bed in the boys dormitory. They had laughed together over their 'other first kisses' as they liked to call them. Ryan's had been with a boy who slobbered all over her and shoved his tongue as far in her mouth as he could, just leaving it there like a dead slug. Needless to say she had never kissed him again. James' had been with a girl who, as soon as the kiss started, had become very aggressive and taken over. James had been disappointed that he hadn't gotten to show off his "technique" as he liked to call it. James had dated that girl for about another week before he broke up with her. He confided in Ryan, telling her that the girl was to pushy for him.

They had never had a fight that lasted longer then a few hours before this. Three hours was the longest. Ryan had a feeling that this was going to last a lot longer than that. But as much as she didn't like it Ryan could understand why James was mad at her. They had agreed not to tell anyone about the promise. James had never told Sirius and that was why Ryan had never told the girls. The only way they would tell anyone was if Ryan had started dating one of James' friends or vice versa. And here she had just blurted it out to everyone. Ryan didn't know if she could handle it if they didn't make up soon.

Without her realizing it, tears had been running down Ryan's face the entire time, until she finally let go and they turned into full-blown, gut-wrenching sobs. What broke her heart the most was that this was the first time in nearly fourteen years that she would go to bed with out him kissing her goodnight on the forehead and warning her to watch out for the "bed buggies" as she had called them when she was little.

Up in the girls dormitory, Peia, Tay and Al were talking quietly.

"What do you think she meant when she said she couldn't tell us?" Peia asked. "It can't be that it is to embarrassing because Al lost hers to that ugly, geeky Hufflepuff and we didn't make to much fun of her and nothing could be worse than that."

Al made a sputtering noise of protest. "Hey, he may be ugly and geeky but he was sweet. Besides not all of us can loose it to the 'Hogwarts Sex God', though I still don't know why you would want to sleep with Black." She gave a small shudder of disgust as she spit out Sirius name like it was the plague.

Peia simply replied, "Made for a good first time, which is more than most girls can say."

Tay thought about it for a little while before she came up with an answer to the original question. "My guess would be that the guy didn't what it to get around, either because he was protecting Ryan's reputation or because he doesn't like to be the center of attention. And we all know that the guy would be the center of attention because the boys would be out for his blood. She obviously cares enough for this guy to keep quiet. We all know she wouldn't keep anything from us without a good reason."

"Yeah, I guess. But it's not like we would tell anyone. She should have known us better than to think we would tell anyone." Al said.

Peia jumped into defend Ryan. She may have been upset that she didn't know something about her best friend, but angry or not she always had her back. "Of course she knows that. It's just that once things are said out loud there is more of a chance of people finding out. Remember when she and Finn first started dating? We were the only ones that she told and then all of a sudden James and Sirius were storming off to the Ravenclaw common room to try and kill him. I swear I think those boys have our room bugged somehow so that they can know all of our secrets."

"Wouldn't surprise me," Tay muttered. "But for now we need to focus on Ryan. Something is seriously wrong and we need to figure out how to fix it."

"I don't think we can right now. She'll talk to us when she's ready. The most important thing right now is that she works things out with whoever this guy is. We just need to be there for her and make sure that she isn't hurt too much."

Before anyone could add anything else all three girls grabbed their left wrists, which were giving off a red glow coupled with a quick searing pain. All four of the girls have practically identical tattoos on the inside of their left wrists. It is of a shooting star, and underneath was written "Vasilia" (pronunciation Vah-SEE-lee-ya) in elegant cursive writing. Vasilia was the goddess of the stars, and that name along with a shooting star was the calling card of sorts that the girls left behind for all of their pranks. That was the only identifying mark that the Marauders knew their rivals by. And being boys, the Marauders never noticed the tattoo that each girl had, which would have identified them as the rivals of the Marauders. The reason that the tattoos are practically identical is because each girl had hers done in a different color. Ryan's was red, Peia's purple, Tay's gold and Al's black. The tattoos also served another purposed, not just a calling card. The girls had had the tattoos done with mood ink. If one of the girls was in danger, very scared or incredibly upset, then the tattoo on each of the other three girls would become momentarily painful and glow the color of the girl in need. They had taken it one step further and found a very handy charm to place on the tattoos. It worked so that if any of the girls were in need of help, her location would appear, written on the star after the glow had stopped, so that the others could get to her.

Right now, after the glow subsided, the word 'Gryffindor Common Room' appeared on each girl's wrist. They wasted no time in sprinting out the door and down the stair into the common room, where they found Ryan curled into a ball on one of the chairs in hysterics. They all rushed to her and she flung herself at Peia, and collapsed onto her shoulder. Today was a Hogsmeade trip, which was where they were headed before the fight between Sirius and Ryan, so none of the girls were worried about anyone walking into the common room so they stayed there to comfort her. Al and Tay were quiet while rubbing Ryan's back and Peia held her, murmuring nonsensical things in her ear to calm her down. When Ryan had calmed down considerably, Peia started talking.

"Ry? Do you want to talk about anything?"

She desperately did want to talk about it. The only problem was, she didn't know how to tell the girls about it without giving away specifics that she wasn't supposed to give.

"Yes, but the first thing that you guys have to realize is that I can't tell you who the guy is."

The girls started to protest, but Ryan cut them off.

"No, we promised that we wouldn't tell anyone. The only way people would know is if I wanted to date one of his friends or he wanted to date one of mine. Then we would tell the person the truth, but other than that no one knows. Okay?"

They agreed, but they didn't like it

"That's the reason that I never told anyone. I knew that people would be hurt or get mad. You guys are mad that I didn't tell you when it happened and that I won't tell you now, the boys are going to be mad that someone touched me without their permission and they will try and find the boy and kill him, the boy is mad that I screamed it in the hallway, and James won't talk to me. I don't know what I'll do if J.J. stays mad at me."

Here Ryan started to cry again. The girls just waited it out while all holding her in a big hug. After she calmed down again, she took a deep breath and restarted.

"The guy and I didn't really like each other. It was more of a comfort and trust type of thing. We were young and curious, so we decided that we wanted to know what all the fuss was about."

"Exactly how young is 'young'?" Tay asked.

"Very beginning of fourth year young."

"Oh my god. Beginning of fourth year? Ry, depending on how close to the beginning, you would have just turned fourteen. Your birthdays not even a month before school starts." Exclaimed Peia, astounded that it was that long ago. She had been expecting it to have happened just a few weeks ago, maybe months but never years.

"Thanks Peia. I had no idea when MY birthday was or that I would have been fourteen in fourth year. What would I do without you to inform me of these things?" came the sarcastic reply. Peia, being very mature, stuck her tongue out at Ryan. "And when I said very beginning I meant very beginning. Two weeks after school started."

The girls just looked at her. That was really early. They thought that Peia had been the first one in their class and she hadn't lost hers until the very end of fifth year. Al and Tay had both been in the middle of sixth.

Before they could say anything Ryan continued. "Before you say anything you have to know that I've never had sex since then. There's never been anyone that I cared enough about to do it again."

"What about Finn? You guys have been close for a while now." Al said.

"Yeah but not close enough for that. And I think that Finn understands that because he's never pushed me or tried to get me to reconsider my decision. Maybe in the future, but I just don't feel that strongly about him right now."

Then Peia finally got the nerve to ask the question that they all wanted to know. The one question they always asked when they talked about a boy they had been with. "So . . . how was it?"

Up in the boys dormitory Sirius, Remus, and Peter was talking about some girl that they had seen at the Three Broomsticks. James was only half listening while getting ready to go to bed. Just as he was about to get in, Sirius spoke up.

"Aren't you going to tell Ryan goodnight?" he asked with a curious look. They guys all knew that James always said goodnight to Ryan. They wondered what could make him this mad that he would skip it. Surely it couldn't be about the hallway earlier.

James felt like crying when he heard this. He knew that Ryan loved this tradition of theirs. That's why he still did it after all this time. It had all started one night not long after they had met, when Ryan had admitted to James that she was scared to go to bed because there were monsters under the bed. James had been her hero and told her that he would scare the monsters away. After Ryan was positive that the bed was all clear she had declared that all she had to worry about now where bed buggies. James had told her that he would always save her from monsters, kissed her forehead and said "Watch out for those bed buggies". Ever since, Ryan can't sleep without James kissing her goodnight and telling her that. They had never missed a night. Even if James had to go to her house just for their goodnight ritual, he always did. And he'd never admit it, but he liked to do it too. He thought about it for a moment. He knew what had happened today in the hallway wasn't totally Ryan's fault. When she gets mad, she really has trouble controlling the things that come out of her mouth. But that didn't mean that James wasn't upset or that he was ready to forgive her. He came to a decision. He wouldn't break tradition just because of some stupid fight, and maybe if he did this Ryan would understand that while he needed time things would go back to normal eventually.

"Yeah, I am", he said as he walked out of the room.

Ryan stopped her conversation with the girl as she heard footsteps coming down the boys stairs and held her breath, not daring to think that it was James. But her eyes never left the bottom of the stairway. James stepped out wearing only a pair of black pajama pants and a pair of rainbow socks that Ryan had given him for Christmas years ago. It was one of James' oddities that he couldn't sleep without these socks on. He only wore them to bed so they were still in pretty good condition. When he appeared Ryan felt like she could finally breathe again, even if she couldn't move or speak.

James saw her curled up in a chair, surrounded by the girls, face red and blotchy from crying. He noticed that she hadn't moved a muscle since he appeared as if she was afraid of what he was going to say or do. He stopped in front of her chair and knelt down. Giving her a small grin, he kissed her softly on the forehead. Standing up again he said, "Watch out for those bed buggies R.P." and walked back to the stairs.

Just as he was stepping up to the first one, something small and soft collided with his back. Arms wrapped around his neck and he automatically dropped his hands to his sides to grab Ryan's legs, knowing instinctively that she would have had to jump on his back to reach his neck since she was so much shorter than him. When Ryan was situated so that it looked like James was giving her a piggy-back ride, her arms squeezed around his neck so she was hugging him tightly and cutting off his oxygen supply. She leaned into his ear and whispered, "'Night J.J.", before jumping off his back. James turned to see her sprinting up the girls stairs. He continued up his stairs smiling to himself.

The girls tattoo

**Disclaimer: I, unfortunately, dont own James Potter or anything to do with his world**


	5. Confessions and Eavesdropping

CHAPTER 5: Confessions and Eavesdropping

After Ryan and James had disappeared up their respective staircases Peia, Tay and Al waited a grand total of three seconds before taking off after Ryan. They burst into the room to find Ryan lying on her bed staring at the ceiling with a goofy smile on her face. When she saw them, she launched herself at them hugging them all at the same time while laughing and repeating over and over, "He's talking to me. He's not mad. He's talking to me. He's not mad."

"Yeah, yeah. James is talking to you. We're happy for you. Don't think that that's going to get you out of telling us about IT. And lets start from the very beginning. Forget everything from downstairs." Peia said, putting an emphasis on it to let her know that they hadn't forgotten. Tay and Al silently nodded their heads in agreement. They all settled onto Ryan's bed in a semi-circle to hear her story.

"Well we were both really curious about sex, but not quite old enough to have to worry about it yet. We were really young."

"How young?" Tay asked, thinking that they had heard wrong before, and she was going to say sometime in the end of fifth year. The other three had all lost their virginities at sixteen, the April of fifth year for Peia and November and September of sixth year for Al and Tay respectively, so fifth year would be young since Ryan would still have been fifteen.

Ryan kind of looked embarrassed as she said, "Fourth year young."

"Holy Shit Ry! Fourth year? What were you –"

"Now hold on." Al cut across Peia. "When in fourth year are we talking about? Because you could have been _almost_ fifteen."

Ryan's cheeks turned a brilliant red again. "Beginning of fourth year." And knowing that they would ask, she added "September 16th".

All three girls were silent, just looking at her. Just as she was starting to get uncomfortable, Peia started laughing hysterically. Al and Tay looked at her like she was crazy, but Ryan just smiled, knowing that whatever came out of her mouth next would be good.

When Peia got a little more control over her laughing she wheezed out, "Sirius is going to be pissed. The 'Hogwarts Sex God' isn't quite that god he thinks she is if two people were at it before him. He didn't lose his until over a year later."

Then they all started laughing, knowing that it was true. If Sirius ever found out he would think that someone was after his title. After about five minutes of uncontrollable laughter, they settled back into the topic at hand.

"Why so young Ry? What made you pick then, that guy?" Tay questioned. Everyone was surprised she hadn't spoken in a while.

Ryan was quiet for a while before she answered. "You guys are going to think that this is crazy."

"Try us." Peia challenged.

"I hadn't planned on sleeping with him that day. You guys were all busy with something or other so I was by myself. We just started hanging out and we were walking around the lake. He was being so sweet, and then he kissed me and I know that I wanted him to be my first." Ryan had to flub a few details so that it wouldn't be obvious that it was James. She hadn't planned on it being that day. But was soon as he kissed her she had known that it was going to be. And she had always known that she wanted it to be James, not just after he kissed her. But as these were such little details and it was so important to keep her and James' secret, Ryan didn't feel bad about the little white lies.

"Well, come on, we want details!" Peia practically screamed.

Ryan sat there in shock for a minute, jaw hanging open at what Peia had said.

Al, Tay, and Peia all started laughing.

"Get your mind out of the gutter Ry. No pervy guy details. We want girl details."

Ry then Ryan's brain had caught up and she knew exactly what they wanted. It was the same thing that they had talking about when Peia, Tay and Al, respectively, had each lost their virginity. She laughed at herself for a minute. She had been spending too much time with James and the boys if that was where her mind was going.

She just smiled at them and started to give them wheat they wanted. "He was really sweet and gentle. It was his fist time too, so neither of us really knew what to do, but he said something that I'll never forget and that made all of the difference in the world. When he could tell that I was really nervous, he stopped everything, looked at me, smiled, and whispered, 'Relax. You can't do anything wrong because I don't know what to do either, so I won't know if you do. Just do what feels right.' And for some reason that really helped. It didn't really hurt, just more of a stretching feeling. He was making sure that what he did felt good for me and he wasn't hurting me at all." Ryan was smiling the whole time she was talking. "It may not have been earth shattering pleasure, but he made it feel good. And there's plenty of time for that later, when I'm in love."

Al thought about this last statement for a bit. "So you're not going to have sex again?"

"What? You're not having sex again 'til marriage?" Now Peia was by no means a slut, but she didn't see what was wrong with having sex before getting chained to one guy for the rest of her life.

"No, maybe not waiting for marriage but definitely not until I know for sure that I'm in love."

"Is that why you and Finn haven't slept together yet?"

"Yeah. We've talked about it before and he understands that I want to wait. He respects it, and says that he has no problem waiting for me to be ready."

"Oh, that's so sweet!" Al exclaimed. "You have great boyfriend."

All the while, Peia was in the background making gagging noises and pretending to stick her finder down her throat. Not because of Ryan's choice, she respected that, but because she didn't really like Finn. He was a nice enough guy, but she just didn't think that he and Ryan went well together.

When she saw this, Ryan felt like the pillow that she threw at Peia was fully justified. This turned into a full out pillow war between Peia and Ryan with the occasional help from Al, and Aphrodite, Ryan's tiger cub, growling and chasing the pillows around the room.

They all jumped when Tay spoke up again, surprised because she hadn't spoken for so long.

"Ry, they don't teach contraceptive charms to fourth years, and those books are forbidden to anyone below sixth year. Were you safe?"

Peia froze in the middle of flinging at pillow at Ryan. She had completely forgotten about that, which she shouldn't have considering all of the trouble that she and Sirius had had figuring out those charms. Since they had only been fifth years it had taken a lot of work. 'Whoever this boy is' she thought 'he had better have been safe. If he put my best friend in danger of pregnancy and STDs he is a dead man! Trust Tay to come up with the sensible, important questions that no one else thought to ask about.'

"Yes Tay, we may not have known the charm yet, but he was prepared. He had a condom. And you better believe nothing would have happened if he didn't. I have no desire to have a baby right now, much less at fourteen."

Something had been bothering Al for a while in this conversation. She thought for a minute and then said "Ry, does Finn think that you're a virgin?"

Ryan sat there for a while; trying to figure of if she and Finn had ever talked about that before. They had talked about Ryan wanting to wait but she didn't think that virginity had ever come up. "I guess he does. I don't remember us ever talking about it, so probably."

Everyone looked at Al, trying to think where she was going with this. She chewed on her lip for a minute, trying to figure out the best way to say this. "So, do you think that he might be a little upset to learn that you're not a virgin? Mad that you won't have sex with him, but you would with someone else. It might make him a little less understanding about your decision to wait." She sat there, hoping that it hadn't come out in a way that would make Ryan mad. She was just worried about her.

Ryan smiled at her as if she knew exactly what Al was thinking. "I understand what you mean Al, but I really don't think that Finn will care. But I love you for worrying about me."

The girls talked for a little while longer before dropping off to sleep. Ryan was the last one, and she fell asleep with a smile on her face thinking about how James was talking to her again.

Meanwhile, the boys were sitting in their beds listening to the girl's conversation because they actually did have the girl's room bugged.

"This is so incredibly wrong. We shouldn't be doing this." Remus said.

Sirius threw a pillow at him. "Would you shut up Moony. I can't hear anything over your jabbering. And besides, it's for their own good. Ryan doesn't tell us this stuff so how are supposed to know if we don't find out ourselves?"

"It doesn't matter, this is still wrong. If the girls wanted us to know this stuff, then they would tell us." he protested.

In a rare moment of insight, Peter spoke up, "Think of it this way Moony. We are listening so that we can protect her. What if some guy hurt A.C., and we could have stopped it by listening to their conversations. Wouldn't you feel guilty then?"

"Nobody better hurt A.C. As a matter of fact, nobody ever touch A.C." Remus growled.

"Yes, yes Moony we know. You're in love with A.C. but too much of a pansy to tell her, so you settle for threatening anyone who looks at her. Can you shut up so we can eavesdrop now?" Sirius was getting impatient.

They all settled down to listen.

" . . . Get you out of telling us about IT." The three boys exchanged looks, each hearing the not-so-subtle emphasis Peia had put on 'IT'. Thankfully, they were so busy concentrating on what they heard they didn't notice James fidgeting uncomfortably. They all sat motionless until the conversation died away and the girls fell asleep. Sirius waved his wand to deactivate their surveillance, and they went back to each being lost in their own thoughts.

**Sirius**

'Well damn. Beginning of fourth year. That's impressive.' At that exact moment his brain seemed to finally catch up and realize something that he should have picked up much earlier, this morning in the hallway earlier. His mind just never registered the fact. Ryan wasn't a virgin. She had had sex with someone. Someone had touched Ryan. Sirius was instantly beyond pissed. No one touched Ryan. He had never admitted it to anyone, and he had no idea that every single person in the school besides the girls already knew, but he, Sirius Black, was in love with Ryan Peyton Kogan. 'Well damn.'

**Remus**

Remus' thoughts were briefly on the same ideas that he had been thinking this morning in the hallway. Find the boy that touched Ryan. Kill him. But then he remembered something that switched his train of thought. Taylor had said that none of the other girls were virgins anymore either. That meant that someone had touched _HIS_ A.C. Now he may have been being a little selfish not wanting anyone else to have her when he wouldn't ask her out, but god damn it, he was in love with her. All his warnings to other guys hadn't worked apparently and now he was going to have to do something about it. The question was: What to do?

**Peter**

Peter really didn't have many thoughts on the subject. He had never been very close to any of the girls, and the only reason that he talked to them was because Ryan was James' best friend. But that still didn't mean that he wouldn't help hunt down the guy that she had lost her virginity to. He had broken the Rules and he had to pay.

**James**

James was, once again, very uncomfortable. That seemed to be an ongoing theme today. While he was glad that R.P. had never told anyone about them before this and that she had obviously been happy with the experience, he was a little upset that she had told now. What is someone figured out that it was him. All of the guys knew that he was probably the only wizard who regularly carried around a condom in his wallet. His dad had taken him into his study the summer before fourth year and given him the talk on always being prepared and never taking any chances. Then he had given James a box of condoms and told him to always keep one on him, and James had never forgotten that. Though his dad would probably kill him if he knew that James had used one with R.P., whom he considered his daughter, his princess. James just prayed that none of the guys picked up on the mention of a condom. If any of them figured out that it was James that had touched R.P. he was as good as dead. Even though Sirius had never told them, they all knew that he had a thing for R.P. and would take it personal that James had touched her.

The boys dropped off to sleep one by one with the unspoken agreement that plotting revenge could wait until morning.

In the morning, Ryan woke up with a huge smile on her face. James wasn't mad at her anymore and she couldn't wait until breakfast to see him. It was Sunday so she didn't have to dress in her uniform. She pulled on a pair of jeans that here a little to long so the ends were frayed, with her trademark red Chuck Taylors and a black long sleeve t-shirt. The shirt had the Beach Boys logo on it as she loved muggle music. Ryan pulled her hair into a messy bun low on her head. The hat of the day was a hot pink beanie. It clashed horribly with her hair, but James had given it to her, so she didn't care. The girls were already at breakfast, so Ryan skipped out of the dorm singing Fun, Fun, Fun by The Beach Boys softly under her breath. It was quite possibly her favorite song.

As Ryan entered the Great Hall, she saw the girls sitting next to her boys and grinning. She skipped across the hall not caring who was looking at her and stopped behind James who, since he had his back toward the doors, hadn't seen her come in. Ryan wrapped her arms around James' neck and said "Morning J.J.", and it was then that she noticed that James had gone stiff under her touch. She let go, backed up a few steps and just looked at him.

James looked back at her. His eyes flickered up to her hat and he gave a ghost of a smile. Then he met her eye and he had the saddest look that she had ever seen on his face. Slowly he shook his head. Without saying a word to any of them, James got up and waked out off the hall. Sirius, Remus, and Peter all stared at Ryan with undisguised surprise and massive amount of curiosity. They had never seen James act that way towards Ryan. Peia, Al and Tay just looked at Ryan with sympathetic looks. They had known how happy Ryan had been when James has said goodnight to her last night and when she had though that he wasn't mad at her. None of the six knew what to say to Ryan, as she just stood there staring at the space that James had been sitting in before, but as soon as Peia reached for her hand, Ryan took off. She ran out of the hall and out the front door. No one followed because they knew that she needed time alone right now.

Ryan just ran for what seemed like hours, when in all actuality it was only one hour and fifteen minutes. She ran around the lake, down the path to Hogsmeade, and even through parts of the Forbidden Forest. When she finally stopped running, she dropped to the ground and started sobbing.

The only though in her mind was: "What do you do when the only on who can dry your tears and stop the pain, is the one making you cry and hurt in the first place?"


	6. Fights and Maybe Friends

Chapter 6

Several hours later, Peia, Al, and Tay were sitting in the common room just talking. They wanted to give Ryan some space before one of them went up to the room. The portrait opened up and they saw Sirius, Remus and Peter walk in. The boys joined them on the couches and the six of them started talking. After a little while, Sirius asked the question that all the boys wanted answers to.

"So what the hell is going on with James and Ryan?"

"Well, I would think it's obvious but then this is you we're talking about Black." Al snapped. It's not that she didn't like Sirius per say, it's just that sometimes he got on her nerves and today was not a good day for her. She also had no idea why so many girls were falling all over him. She didn't think he was at all gook looking and found his cockiness totally repulsive. But as long as she was careful not to think of him as a member ob the male species, they were okay. Al was even more on edge today than normal because of Remus. She wished that Remus would give her half of the attention that he paid Ryan. She knew that there was noting going on there, that they thought of each other as noting but friends, but he was always so worried and protective of Ry.

"Chill Al." Surprisingly, it was Tay who spoke up. "I don't think their fight is for the reason that everyone thinks."

"Of course he's mad that someone touched her," Remus broke in. "Touching Ryan isn't allowed and every guy in this school knows it."

Peter and Sirius shook their heads in agreement, while the girls all gave him curious looks. Had the Marauders really warned every boy in the school against touching Ry? It was a bit obsessive and now that they thought about it, the girls had no doubt that they had done something of the sort.

"We'll get back to that little bit of information later. That may be part of the reason, but I'd say that's not all of it. Or not even the biggest part of it."

"Well then 'Oh Great And All-Knowing Taylor', what is the biggest part of the problem?" Sirius asked in a slightly mocking tone.

"Well obviously I don't know. They're not telling us something and I have no idea what it could be. But we know for sure that James isn't mad because he has feelings for Ryan."

All six of them laughed at the idea.

"Speaking of Ryan, why aren't you guys upstairs with her?" Remus asked.

"We thought she might want some time alone, so we're giving her another fifteen minutes before we send Peia up there." Al replied, eager to talk to Remus.

Peter, being a bit oblivious, asked "Why would you send Peia and no all of you just go?"

Everyone rolled their eyes at him and Peia answered. "Ryan is more likely to open up to just her best friend first when she has a problem, and since James is the one the problem involves, that leaves me."

The six of them spent the next ten minutes trying to figure out what they were missing with Ryan and James. Then Peia got up without a word and went up to the girl's dormitory. None of the others expected to see her again for a while, so when she came back down not even two minutes later they were all surprised.

"She didn't want to talk?" Remus asked.

"She wasn't up there." Was the confused reply.

"Wasn't up there?" Al repeated. "Then where the hell is she?"

No one had an answer for that.

By then, Sirius was starting to freak out. 'What happened to Ryan? Where had she gone after James walked out on her?' He had thought for sure that she would run up to her dorm. Then he remembered that sometimes when she couldn't sleep or had nightmares, she would go up to the boy' dorm. He ran up there, not thinking that she wouldn't go up there since it was James that she was having the fight with. Instead of finding Ryan, Sirius found James and decided to get some answers.

"What the hell was that at breakfast James?"

James just looked at him and sighed. "It was nothing Sirius. Don't worry about it."

"It was nothing." Sirius repeated. He then said the one thing he knew could get James' attention. "So it was nothing that made Ryan run out of the Great Hall in tears after you left, was it James?"

James looked uncomfortable. "She was crying?"

Sirius started him straight in the eye. "She stood there staring at your chair for a while before she ran out of the hall crying, and no on e has seen her since. So that must have been one hell of a nothing."

"It's just a fight Sirius. We'll be fine later."

"It can't be 'just a fight' if Ryan doesn't know that your mad at her. She obviously didn't expect this to happen."

"No, she knew I was mad at her. But, typical Ryan, she chose to ignore it. She knew that I was mad at her yesterday and chose to believe that just because I said goodnight to her I had forgiven and forgotten. I love her to death, but sometime she only thinks of herself. She was wrong and she knows it!"

Sirius' face turned bright red in his anger. "Don't you dare say that about her! She loves you and would never say anything like that about you no matter how mad at you she was. Now I have to go find her because you hurt her and no one had any idea where she has been for the last five hours. And you better find a way to make things right with her because there are five people downstairs and one up here that will hurt you if you keep hurting her." And with that Sirius turned to walk out the door.

"Still in denial that you're in love with her?" James yelled after Sirius. But he was already out the door and down the stairs, leaving James alone and feeling guiltier than he ever had in his life. Because he knew Sirius was right. No matter what he did, Ryan would never dream of saying anything bad about him and even when she though he was wrong, Ryan would defend him to the death. There were a few well known facts around Hogwarts. James Potter and Sirius Black were brothers. And Ryan Peyton Kogan was James Potter's little sister. Sirius Black and Ryan Peyton Kogan were like step-siblings that fought constantly with one another, but there was one thing that they agreed on. No one messed with James Potter or they would pay. 'I'm the worst friend ever.' James thought to himself.

While Sirius and James were talking upstairs, down in the common room Remus and Peter were talking, trying to figure out where Ryan could be. But Remus was also trying to listen to the girl's conversation. So far all he had heard were the words 'tattoo' 'not working' not physical pain' 'but last night' and 'numb'. Bu none of that made any sense at all to Remus, so he went back to wondering if she might be with her boyfriend.

Across the room, the girls were panicking because the tattoos weren't telling them where Ryan was.

"Why the fuck are these sodding tattoos not working? They're supposed to let us know when she's in pain." Peia whispered furiously.

"Yeah, but what she's feeling now is emotional not physical pain. The tattoos are for danger, fear, or pain." Al stated.

"But last night they worked when Ry was so upset. Besides, they're supposed to work for danger, fear, pain and distress, that's what the spell said." Peia argued back. She was so upset that she didn't even realize that she was getting louder with every sentence until Tay gave her a look that clearly said 'Shut Up!'.

"I think I know what's happening." Tay announced. "Ry is probably feeling really numb right now. So that might be blocking the link because technically she isn't feeling pain, emotional or physical, or any distress."

They were all quiet while they thought about this explanation but jumped when Sirius came crashing into the common room from upstairs and barreled through the portrait hole without a word to anyone.

Sirius was running through the halls trying to think of where Ryan might be and cursing himself for not thinking to grab the Marauders Map. It would have saved him a lot of time. He mentally ran through the list of everything that he knew about Ryan's favorite places, which he knew a lot about because Sirius knew almost everything about her. 'But definitely not in a creepy stalker-ish way because I am THE Sirius Black and I never chase anyone, they chase me.' He thought. 'And all the time I spent watching Ryan wasn't chasing her, it was research.' While convincing himself that he wasn't chasing (or stalking) Ryan, Sirius had been continuing with his list. 'Ryan likes to run when she's mad and takes a path through all of the greenhouses, when she is happy she likes to sit in a little clearing about 100 feet into the Forbidden Forest, when confused she flies around the Quidditch Pitch. But sad?' Sirius racked his brain. Sad, sad, sad . . . why couldn't he think? But this time Sirius had run around almost the entire castle, expect the dungeons and the towers, which he knew Ryan would never go to. 'I need to think. And I always think better by . . .' Sirius actually reached up and smacked himself on the forehead. 'Way to go genius. THE LAKE!' That's where he went to think, but Ryan liked to sit there when she was sad and wanted to be alone. 'Well that's too bad.' He thought. 'Because she's going to deal with me.' He took off for the front doors.

Sirius reached the Black Lake at a dead sprint, and slid across the grass as he tried to stop before Ryan realized that he was there. He saw her sitting on a little dock that stuck, maybe, twenty feet into the lake, with her shoes and socks sitting next to her and her jeans rolled up so that she could dangle her feet in the water. Her back was towards the castle, so she didn't know Sirius was behind her. He just looked at her for a little while before quietly sitting down and taking off his shoes and socks and rolling up his pants legs. Standing up, he walked quietly over to Ryan and sat down.

Ryan jumped when someone sat down next to her and stuck their feet into the water. She jumped even more when she looked up and saw Sirius.

"What are you doing here? Come to mock me because James likes you better right now?" she snapped with just a hint of venom in her voice.

Sirius shook his head slowly. "I was worried about you." He whispered, not daring to look her in the eye.

Ryan was dumbfounded. Had she heard right? "You were worried?"

"Yes."

Ryan waited for him to go on, but when he didn't she asked, "Why?"

Sirius squirmed uncomfortably. What was he supposed to say to that? 'Because I love you.'? That was definitely out. She would laugh in his face. He decided that maybe this could make them somewhat friends and he definitely didn't want to blow it. "You were so upset this morning and then I hadn't seen you all day. Me, Remus and Peter asked the girls where you had gone and they said that you were up in your room, but when Peia went up there, you weren't there. No one had seen you all day. I got in a fight with James and was running around looking for you and decided that I needed to think. This is the spot where I like to go for quiet. And here you are."

Ryan was quiet for a minute, trying to process everything that he had said. She finally latched onto what she thought was the least dangerous thing Sirius had said. "You and James had a fight?"

'Shit!' Sirius thought. 'I just had to go and open my mouth. I can't tell her that we were fighting because he was bad mouthing her. She'll be even more hurt.' "Yeah. I tried to talk to him about his morning and he got a little upset with me. Said it was nothing. Then I might have yelled at him that if it was nothing then you wouldn't have run out crying and disappeared. I also might have said that it was all his fault before storming out."

"Wow." Ryan breathed. She had no idea what to say to that. Why would Sirius get into a fight with James for her? "Thank you. It means a lot that you would stand up for me. But it wasn't James' fault. I wanted so much for him to not be mad that I thought that I could just wish it away and when he came down to say goodnight, I deluded myself."

"No." Sirius interrupted. She was saying everything that James had said, and he didn't buy it any more now then he had then. They were both to blame for parts of it, and there was no way in hell that he was letting Ryan take all of the blame. "Even if that is true, that's no reason for James to walk out like he did."

"Thank you." Ryan whispered again.

"No problem. Do you want to talk about whatever it is you're fighting about?"

Ryan let out a huge breath. "I wish, but I can't."

Sirius shot her a confused look. "Can't?" he repeated questioningly.

She couldn't hold back a chuckle. He just looked so innocent and childlike just then in his confusion. Nothing like his usual self. It was actually kind of endearing. Ryan immediately shook that though from her head.

"James and I made a promise to one another, and part of the promise was that we would never tell anyone about it. They only way we would talk about it with anyone else was if one specific event happened, but it hasn't so I can't." Sirius saw that Ryan had tears in her eyes. "I wish I could. Then maybe I wouldn't be so confused or upset. Then maybe someone could tell me what I'm supposed to do!"

Sirius was quiet for a minute, trying to think of a way to help Ryan. "What if you talked about it hypothetically? Then you could get some advice but still not be breaking you promise to James."

Ryan thought about it for a minute. "But it's not hypothetical because you know that it's about me and James. And I won't betray him again."

They sat in silence for a while, both desperately trying to come up with a good solution. Finally, Sirius broke the silence. "Sorry, but the only solution I can come up with is you talking to him. But if you don't want to do that, you'll have to wait for him to come to you. And James is almost as impatient as you so it shouldn't take all that long."

Ryan contemplated this, even though she knew he was right. "True. Plus it's about the only option that I have."

After deciding that that was the best course of action, Ryan and Sirius sat with their feet in the Lake for hours, talking about anything and everything. Then only time that changed was the one time that Sirius said something perverted and Ryan pushed him into the Lake. They finally decided that they should get back when it began to get dark.

As Ryan and Sirius walked into the castle, Ryan was arguing with herself. She couldn't figure out how to thank Sirius for everything that he had done for her today. They reached the common room and Sirius gave the password. They both walked in and Sirius started towards the boy's staircase thinking that he needed to fix things with James. Just before he walked up the stairs, he heard Ryan.

"Sirius, wait."

The whole common room froze as one, as if on cue, to watch. Ryan had never voluntarily talked to Sirius.

Ryan took everyone by surprise when she walked up to him and didn't slap him. Instead she took everyone by surprise again, this time including Sirius and herself, when she hugged him.

"Thank you." She said softly. Since she was so much smaller than him, her arms were tight around his waist and her face pressed firmly into his chest, so her words were slightly muffled. Then look that crossed Sirius' face make all the boys present smirk and think 'the poor sod' and all the girls present burn with jealousy and plot the 'mysterious' death of Ryan.

Sirius just wrapped his arms around her, rested his cheek on top of her head and shook his head. "It was absolutely no problem." He said back.

Ryan stepped out of his arms, shot him a smile and went up her stairs. With the silly grin still fixed on his face, Sirius continued up his stairs, both completely oblivious to their audience.

Sirius threw open the door to the seventh year boy's dorm and, literally, bounced into the room. Dropping onto James' bed, which James happened to be laying on, he loudly exclaimed "Today is officially the best day of my life."

James reply was a very eloquent "oomph" because Sirius' elbow had just forcibly removed all of the air from his lungs. If anyone had chosen that moment to walk into the room, they would have been greeted with a very peculiar sight. James Potter was lying on his bed with a very pained expression on his face, while Sirius Black was practically sitting on his lap, lying back with his feet dangling over the end of the bed and his elbow on James' stomach. It was a sign of hot close the two are that neither found this at all embarrassing. It was just mildly painful for James, in a physical sense, so Sirius moved up the bed to sprawl out next to James.

Sirius decided to apologize first before going into details. "I'm sorry." He said without preamble. "It's not my place to get in the middle of you and Ryan's fight. It's something you two have to work out together." He paused slightly uncomfortably. "And she said you were right." He admitted sheepishly. "She said its all her fault. That she broke some promise to you, she wouldn't tell me what; said she wouldn't bread another one or something, and that she wanted so badly for you not to be mad at her that she fooled herself and that if she just acted like nothing was wrong it would go away."

James just laid there waiting for Sirius to finish. "I'm sorry too Padfoot. I thought about what you said and you were right. Ry would never say anything like that to me no matter what I did. The problem is I can't just top being mad right now. It's too soon, and if anyone had figured out what happened with the promise she broke it could be bad. I just don't know what to do." He admitted. "I hate hurting her like this."

Sirius hesitated, knowing that what he was about to say could ruin his make-up with James. "Well on thing would be to not walk out on her like you did today. Don't take this the wrong way," He added hastily. "But even though she admitted it was her fault, you still didn't have to walk out on her. Maybe you're both partially to blame for the situation the two of you are in."

He waited for the explosion. "I hate it when you're right. It might help if I just told her I need some time then we'll be okay again."

The two boys smiled at each other, both relieved beyond belief that they were okay again.

"So are you going to tell me why this is the greatest day of your life?"

James resisted the urge to snicker as he watched Sirius' smile grow to comic proportions and become slightly goofy, knowing that his other best friend had something to do with this.

"Well," He began slowly. 'Now is the time.' He thought. 'I'm about to get beaten to a bloody pulp for admitting that I fancy Ryan. Should probably leave out the fact that I might be stalking her.' He added as an after thought. "Prong, I'm in love with Ryan." He said it as fast as humanly possible and shut his eyes, waiting oft the blow that he knew he completely deserved.

When it didn't come, he opened his eyes to see James smirking at him. "What?" He asked warily.

James just continued to smirk. "I know Padfoot."

"What?" Sirius repeated, unbelieving.

"I know. I've known for a while now. Just waiting for you to grow the balls to admit it to me."

"Shit. How many?"

James decided to spare his best friend from the knowledge that the whole school knew or at least suspected. "Just the Marauders."

At that moment the door burst open and Peter and Remus came barreling through.

"Are you two done with the sappy make-up sex yet? Can we move on to 'What the hell just happened in the common room?' now?"

James and Sirius just laughed. For as much as the rest of the school thought Remus was just the sweet on that they roped into their antics, he was just as much a Marauder as them. He just hid it better. Meaning he hid it at all.

"Hold on," James looked at Sirius suspiciously. "What happened in the common room?"

The manic grin was back in place. "It was fantastic. And I hadn't got around to telling you yet."

It was Remus' turn to look suspicious. "What do you mean 'hadn't got around to telling yet'? What were you two doing up here this whole time?" He looked at Peter and they shared a look of comprehension and simultaneously took a step back. "Oh!" They chorused.

"NO!" James and Sirius shouted, and both jumped away from each other and off the bed. Remus and Peter broke into hysterical laughter and James and Sirius flopped back down, realizing they had been joking.

"That was not funny." James said as the other two tried to control their laughter. "And Sirius finally admitted that he's in love."

The laughing stopped immediately after that announcement, replaced with looks of shock. Almost instantly the grins were back.

"Good on you Padfoot. Thought you'd never do it."

"It's about time we were having trouble pretending not to know."

Sirius just stared at Peter and Remus while James sat back smiling. Sirius sighed. "I though I'd been more discreet than that."

Now it was James' turn to laugh uncontrollably. "Padfoot, you're practically stalking her! There's nothing discreet about it. You're just lucky that all of the girls are oblivious to it."

"Taylor might figure it out if you're not careful though. She's a little more observant than the others." Peter added.

Remus was getting impatient by now. "Okay, enough stalling. Explain."

For the third time the grin made an appearance. "Well after talking to James, you guys saw me run out." They nodded. "I went running around the castle trying to figure out where she would go. I had run through the whole castle before thinking about the Lake. There she was sitting on the dock. She looked so cute. Her feet were bare and she's so small they barely touched the water. And –"

"Moving on!" James broke in with a pointed stare.

"Right. She snarked at me because she thought I was there to make fun of her, until I told her that I was worried about her. So we talked for a little while about her and James, but I couldn't help much because she wouldn't tell me what was wrong. But after that we just sat for hours talking about anything that came up. And get this. She only pushed me into the Lake for being an ass once!"

They all applauded. "Way to go Padfoot. That's got to be a record."

"Shut up. So we only came in because it was getting dark. We walked into the common room and I was about to come up here to talk to you when she said 'Sirius, wait.' I thought she was going to punch me just to counteract all the niceness, but she surprised the hell out of me and hugged me. It was fantastic. She wrapped her arms around me and pressed her face into my chest and said thank you. Unfortunately she let go, smiled at me and went up the stairs to the girls' dorm. Then I came up here."

"And punctured one of my lungs with your elbow." James added sarcastically. "But that's great Padfoot, maybe you guys will be okay now."

"If you think the story is great, you should've seen the look on his face when she hugged him. I thought he was going to have the orgasm of his life without her even touching him. I need to find a pensive, that look could provide entertainment for years to come!" Remus exclaimed. They all laughed because that was such a Remus thing to say, but he only did it when it was just the four of them.

As much as they were picking on him, they were really excited for Sirius. He had been wanting this for a long time. The boys spent the rest of the night poking fun at Sirius and planning their next prank. They were going to get back at those damn Vasilia it was the last thing they did.

Sirius went to sleep that night with the silly grin still plastered across his face.


	7. Blowups and Makeups

Chapter Seven

The next few days passed without incident. Which was remarkable in itself. The occupant of Hogwarts couldn't remember ever going so long without a Ryan/Sirius blow up, and they had certainly never gone so long without a Marauder induced laugh. One the rare occasion that all was quiet on the Marauder front, with sent panic throughout the staff and excitement throughout three of the four houses because it meant a prank that required much planning, it could be counted on that there was going to be a prank from their rival group. This, in turn, would lead to a bigger prank from the Marauders. But the recent silence led the populace to two conclusions.

Whatever had cause Ryan to hug Sirius had make them somewhat acquaintances

It seemed that eh Marauders were **fighting**!

Now number two hardly ever happened and when it did it was always Remus who was fighting with James and Sirius over something stupid that they had done, like when they lit themselves on fire or the one memorable time when James had somehow turned himself inside-out. But this time was definitely a first. It seemed that James and Sirius were fighting. They avoided each other at all costs. And no on e seemed to know what to make of it. There were many rumors going around and the one favored by most of the boys, as they were jealous, and the Slytherins was that they had had a lovers spat and broken up.

That assumption was, in fact, false.

"Just talk to him James." Remus urged one night. "This is getting ridiculous. No on even knows why you're fighting."

"It's not my fault!" James agued back. "He's the one not talking to me. I'm not talking to Ryan and now all of a sudden, since they're friends now, he's mad at me. That's off and he knows it."

Remus just glared at him. "I don't give a flying rat's ass whose fault it is James. You're best friends. Brothers. Marauders. Fix this."

It had been a week since Sirius and James' talk in the dorm, five days since they had spoken to each other, and twenty-four hours since Remus' talk with James, and nothing had been done to fix the gap. Finally Remus had had enough and corned Sirius in the common room after dinner that night. "I'm only going to say this once so listen closely. I'll tell you the same thing I told James. I don't give a flying rat's ass whose faulty it is. You're best friends. Brothers. Marauders. Fix this." And he walked away before Sirius had a chance to say anything.

The next day found Sirius sitting on the couch by the fire brooding. Lessons had just finished but he had a free period last lesson so he was already out of his uniform and waiting for someone to come and distract him from his misery. He hated fighting with James.

The first person to walk through the portrait was Ryan. He jumped up and ran to her before she could go up girl's stairs.

"Yes. Finally someone I know. Entertain me."

Ryan just looked at him for a minute before asking slowly, "Do I look like a performing monkey to you?"

Sirius' head tilted to the side in an adorable manner. 'Almost like a puppy when you're chastising it.' Ryan thought.

"No but I could turn you into one if it would make you feel better about the entertaining." Sirius was advancing on her, pulling out his wand.

Ryan just shook her head. "Don't even think about it. Besides it's not my job to entertain you." Ryan paused, realizing why he was so bored. "This is ridiculous. Just make up with James already! I'm sick of you moping around!"

Neither had noticed that people were starting to get back from classes, and that they were all crowding in the common room to watch what they hoped would be a huge fight.

"You're sick of me moping?! The only reason that I'm not talking to him is because of how he's acting towards you."

"Bollocks!" By now they were both at full volume and most of Gryffindor, the other six seventh years were conspicuously absent, was crammed into the common room. "You and James went all PMS on each other and that's why you're not talking to each other. It's got nothing to do with me. And it's all your fault James isn't talking to me in the first place."

Sirius just started at her, trying to figure out how this had come back to him. "How the hell do you come to the conclusion that this is my fault? I had nothing to do with your fight with James."

Ryan just scoffed. "How is this NOT your fault? You feel the need to pick a fight with me every time I started dating somebody. We get into horrible rows in the middle of the corridors in front of the entire school. You piss me off so much that I loose all control over what comes out of my mouth, and now James isn't talking to me. How do you come to the conclusion that this is anyone's fault but yours?"

Sirius let out a cruel laugh. Everyone in the room was surprised and confused. They had never heard Sirius sound like that before. "It's not my fault that you're giving it to any guy that asks. I didn't make you announce to the whole school that you're a whore." The room let out a collective gasp. "That's why James is mad at you so don't try to pin this all on me."

Everyone was frozen, waiting to see what Ryan would do.

Ryan was so shocked that she didn't know what to say. In the seven years that she had known him, Sirius had never said anything like that to her. Sure, they fought and she had said some nasty things about him, but he had never reciprocated. He would just shake his head and walk away, and they would avoid each other like the plague for a while.

Sirius couldn't believe what was coming out of his mouth. He'd just called the love of his life a whore. He had never said that to anyone before. (Okay, he may have said it to his mother but that was completely called for and understandable.) Here he was, mad at his best friend for hurting Ryan and he had just hurt her more than James ever would. He had never hated himself more than he did at that moment.

Ryan saw Sirius open his mouth to say something, but she didn't want to hear it. She just shook her head and walked away, just like she had seen him do so many times before.

Sirius was left standing in the common room realizing that he had been wrong before. As soon as he had seen the tears in her eyes that she was trying to hide from him, he had known that it wasn't possible to hat himself more then at the moment right before she turned away and a solitary tear had escaped and trickled down her cheek.

James walked into the boy's dorm later that night to find it pitch black. After much stumbling, many obscenities and one very sore toe, he finally managed to get to the window and open the curtains. He looked around and wasn't overly surprised to find Sirius lying on his bed, just staring at the ceiling.

"Hi James." He muttered without looked up.

James just sighed. "We have to stop doing this Padfoot."

"Doing what?" Sirius still hadn't looked away from the ceiling.

"Fighting with each other over someone else's fight."

Sirius let out a sarcastic chuckle. "Well we won't have to worry about that anymore Prongs. Considering Ryan is never going to talk to me again. And I don't blame her."

"Yeah, I heard you and R.P. got into it earlier." James couldn't keep the laughter out of his voice.

Sirius finally looked away from the ceiling and at James, but James immediately wished that he hadn't. One look at Sirius' face was enough to know that this was no laughing matter. "What did you hear?" He asked James hesitantly.

"Nothing other than you fought. No one would say anything." James paused. 'It must be bad if Sirius is this upset.' He thought. "So why don't you tell me what happened."

Sirius sighed and nodded, knowing that while James would take this horribly, it would be worse if he heard it from someone else. "You know how our fights get. I'm trying to look out for her and she gets bitch and says nasty things about me." James nodded. As sad as it was, that's just how the two of them worked. "And I walk away James. I always walk away."

"I know you do Padfoot." James cut in. "And I know I don't say this very often because, well, it would be weird, but I'm proud of you for walking away." As he watched, Sirius got a pained look on his face. "You didn't walk away this time did you Sirius?"

Sirius looked at the floor and slowly shook his head. James almost laughed. He looked every bit like a puppy who'd just been caught peeing on the rug.

"What was different about this time?"

Sirius threw his hands up. "That's just it. I don't know Prongs. It was nowhere near the worst thing she's ever said to me, but for some reason I just lost it."

"Tell me what you were fighting about."

"I was bored—"

James closed his eyes and made a choking noise. "Please tell me that you didn't pick a fight with her because you were bored." It almost sounded like he was begging.

"Of course not. What kind of moron do you take me for?" James just shot him a look. "Okay, point taken. But no. So I was bored and she walked into the common room and I said something like 'Entertain me.' Then she asked if she looked like a performing monkey to me, and, of course, being me, I offered to turn her into one if it made her feel better about the entertaining." James just sat there smiling. He thought it was funny and couldn't figure out why this had caused a fight. "I guess she finally figured out why I was so bored and yelled that I needed to stop fighting with you because she was tired of watching me mope around. Me! I do not mope!" James wisely kept his mouth shut, because Sirius did indeed mope. But now was obviously not the time to tell him that.

"Wait, how did she know you were bored because you weren't talking to me?"

Sirius shrugged. "She said that it wasn't her job to entertain me. So I guess she realized that it's your job, but we're not talking." James nodded. It was his job to entertain Sirius just like it was Sirius' job to entertain him. Bad things tended to happen when one of them was bored, never mine when both of them were bored. Then Remus was in trouble. "Anyway, I told her that the only reason I wasn't talking to you was because you weren't talking to her." Here Sirius paused, looking at the floor again. "I'm sorry James. I never should have been an arse to you because Ryan was finally talking to me. I just thought that maybe if she was that I was, I don't know, taking her side I guess, then she would like me more. Which is stupid, but I love her James."

He sounded so hopeless when he said that, that James couldn't help but feel sorry for him. "I know you really like her Padfoot, but agreeing with her on everything won't anything. She'll just work harder to pick a fight."

Sirius nodded in understanding. "But I don't just like her James. I know you're thinking 'We're seventeen we don't know what love is.' But really for the first time I can see myself spending my life with her. I would do anything to make her happy. I hate that I'm the one who hurt her, when all I want to do is protect her."

James was stunned. Sirius had never wanted a future with a girl. He wanted to stay single forever. Or at least as long as possible. "Wow." was all he seemed capable of saying.

"Yeah. Wow."

James shook his head, trying to get back on track. "So what happened after you told her that you were only not talking to me because of her?"

"She told me that I was lying. That you and I went 'PMS' on each other and that's why we weren't talking. Then she said that it was my fault that the two of you were fighting!"

"How did she come up with that? You have nothing to do with why I'm mad at her."

"That's what I said!" Sirius yelled. James could tell that he was getting to the part where he lost his temper and said something stupid because Sirius was getting worked up just talking about it now. "And she said that I start fights with her whenever she gets a new boyfriend and that we get into horrible rows in the middle of the corridors in front of the whole school and that I make so mad that she looses control of her speech. And how could it be anyone's fault but mine that you aren't talking to her!"

"Bollocks. You've got nothing to do with it and she knows it."

"I know! That's what got me so mad." Sirius had been practically shouting at this point, but he suddenly stopped and mumbled something that James couldn't make out.

"What? I can't understand when you talk to your knees and mumble Padfoot."

Sirius looked up, and James had never seen him look so guilty or ashamed. "I said 'I may have said something along the lines of "It's not my fault that you're giving it to any guy who asks."'. . . Oh just wait for it." Sirius said as James stared at him with his mouth hanging open. "It gets better. I might have then proceeded to tell her that I didn't force her to announce to the whole school that she's a whore and that's why you're not talking so don't try and pin it all on me."

Sirius finished and just sat waiting. While James was speechless and completely disbelieving now, any minute he was either going to start laughing or throwing punches. Actually now that he thought about it James could laugh while throwing punches.

"You called her a whore." James whispered.

Sirius just nodded sadly.

"Wow. Well it's going to take some work to get her to talk to you again."

Sirius' jaw dropped. "You mean you're not going to beat me into a bloody pulp. Because I completely deserve it."

James just shook his head and gave a small smile. "Nah. Nothing I could do would hurt you as much as you're hurting right now between Ryan not talking to you and you beating yourself up over it. Just get some sleep tonight and think of ways to beg for forgiveness in the morning. And you better believe that you will definitely have to beg."

The next morning Sirius woke up feeling much better than he had the night before. He was talking to James again and James was going to the help him talk to Ryan. He sat up to start planning with James only to find his bed empty. He heard movement coming from Remus' bed and asked "Hey Rem, you know where James went?"

Remus peeked his head around his bed curtains. "You mean you don't know?" He asked in a confused voice. Sirius just shook his head. "I got back around midnight and he was in bed. I couldn't sleep and heard him get up and sneak out about one. I just figured that the two of you were up to something because he told me when I came in that the two of you were okay again."

Sirius' jaw dropped. "He snuck out without me. The nerve of him. How could he do that to me? The hurt. The pain. The betrayal. He's found someone else hasn't he? You can tell me the truth Remus, I can handle it!"

"You want the truth Sirius?" He asked with a wryly grin. Sirius just nodded. "Yes, it's true!" He ignored Sirius' distressed wail. "You are the biggest drama queen in the whole school. James just couldn't lie to you anymore. He couldn't stand not telling you but there's just no denying it. No one even comes close to you."

Sirius' jaw dropped again. "Drama queen?!" He stuck an offended look on his face. "I can't believe you would say that to me!" He jumped onto his bed, striking a pose. "I should at least be The Drama King. It doesn't get more manly than this Rem." He gestured up and down his body.

Remus let out a sarcastic laugh. "Oh yes, it doesn't get more manly than screeching like a little girl that your best _**guy**_ friend has replaced you."

"I'm glad you agree and finally submit to my superiority." Sirius replied smugly.

"Sarcasm is lost on you isn't it." It was more of a statement than a question but Sirius responded anyway.

"I understand sarcasm perfectly. I just choose not to recognize it unless I'm the one employing it. Now let's go get breakfast. I'm hungry." And with that he proceeded to bound out of the room, still in his pajamas.

Sirius bounced through the doors of the Great Hall and came to a stop. There, sitting calmly at the Gryffindor table was James. But he wasn't sitting alone. No, he was sitting with Peia.

'Very odd.' Sirius thought, but he immediately dismissed it. 'They must be talking about Ry. I hope she wasn't too upset last night.' A smile then crossed his face as he came up with a plan.

Wiping the smile off his face, Sirius let out a high pitched wail that caught the attention of everyone in the Hall. Remus, who had just walked in, and who was actually dressed, just shook his head and walked to the table to get breakfast and enjoy the show.

"James!" Sirius cried running to the table. "How could you?"

James was far to use to this to worry that something was actually wrong. "How could I what Sirius?"

"Don't try that innocent act with me mister. You know exactly what I'm talking about! Just admit it!"

James turned to Remus. "A little help here Rem?"

Remus shook his head and sighed. Leaning in he mock whispered, "He thinks you're cheating on him."

James started to laugh, along with most everyone else, but Sirius let out a distressed wail that had everyone in the near vicinity covering their ears.

"There's no thinking about it! It's true. He's been annoyingly happy for days. And he always has that stupid grin on his face!"

James cut Sirius off. "You mean the same one you have on your face whenever you're thinking about—" He was but off by a hand slapped over his mouth and a pointed look at Peia. He sent Remus an unimpressed glare, since Remus was nodding in agreement with Sirius and shoved Remus' hand off his mouth.

Sirius continued as if no one had interrupted him. "Then last night was the final straw! You snuck out. Without me! The only explanation is that you found someone else. Someone sneakier. Sexier. Better looking." Here Sirius paused and let out a laugh. "Who am I kidding? There's no one alive that's sneakier, sexier or better looking than me! Never mind. I accept your apology for sneaking out without me." With that Sirius plopped down on the bench and started to fill his plate with everything within reach.

James and Remus both started laughing while Peia just stared at him with a disbelieving look on her face. For the next few minutes the boys tried to finalize their plans for their next prank, thinking nothing of Peia listening inn. They were almost finished when Remus had the most fantastic idea.

"What if, instead of doing it to everyone at breakfast, we time it and only have it happen to a few people?"

Identical smirks crossed the faces of James and Sirius.

"That's brilliant Rem. Everyone would spend the whole day paranoid that they were next!" James was bouncing up and down on the bench.

"Oh, oh, oh!" Sirius was practically vibrating with excitement. "We could time it so one or two people would change every hour. From midnight to midnight."

James broke back in with his next thought. "We could do all the changing one day and then the next day have them change back twenty-four hours after they change. That way everyone has to do to classes changed."

The three of them shared a grin and stated laughing.

"This could be our best prank yet! Let them try to top this!" James and Remus nodded in agreement, not needing clarification on who 'them' was.

Peia didn't need clarification either and silently she was agreeing with Sirius. 'Damn. That is really good. If only they had said what the change was.'

Suddenly, Sirius turned to Peia and asked in a soft voice, "How bad was Ryan last night?"

"What do you mean?" Peia asked, looking slightly confused.

"He means was she too upset after their fight yesterday." James broke in, looking concerned for Ryan and surprised that Peia didn't seem to know.

"You guys fought yesterday?" Peia looked totally lost now. "You were getting along so well. And she never said anything about it."

'That doesn't sound like R.P. at all.' James thought. 'Usually after a fight with Sirius she ranted to whoever would listen.' "So nothing seemed off when you saw her?" He asked out loud.

"There had to have been." Sirius protested. "She was crying, well trying not to, when she walked away from me."

Pea's mouth dropped at that and she registered that Remus looked just as shocked. 'So he's out of the loop too.' She noted. "You made Ryan cry?! What the hell did you do to her? The only time I've ever seen her cry was when her first boyfriend dumped her and even then she swore she would never cry over a guy again. Other than that only when James and her are fighting."

The entire time she was talking, Peia was getting closer and closer to Sirius. By the end she was practically in his lap and looked ready to strangle him.

"What . . . did . . . you . . . do?" She growled softly.

As one, each of the three boys leaned back as far as they could while staying on the bench. As if that would help. Remus turned curious eyes on Sirius, knowing that he'd rather kiss Snape than hurt Ryan. James found himself fidgeting uncomfortably and he didn't even do anything wrong.

Sirius however reacted completely different. He actually growled back at her. "Why should I tell you anything?"

"Because I'm her best friend."

Sirius let out a cruel and sarcastic chuckle. Belatedly he recognized it as the same one from his fight with Ryan and knew he was about to say something awful, but he couldn't seem to stop himself. It was like his mouth had mutinied from his brain. "Best friend, huh? Some best friend. You didn't even know we had a fight, that she was crying. Where were you last night, when she probably could have used her best friend? You sure as hell weren't there for her."

"She wouldn't have wanted to talk about it." Peia tried to defend herself.

"Who the fuck cared if she didn't want to talk." They all winced at his shout. Sirius didn't use that language in front of the girls. "You should have been there even to just sit there with her; like Remus did for me for hours, in dead silence, before he had to leave. Or waited her out and listened when she was ready like James. And then you do whatever you can to make it better. But you never, ever, abandon them like that. Yeah, you're a fabulous best friend." With that he got up and calmly waked out, leaving a stunned silence throughout the entire hall. No one in the whole school besides the Marauders had ever seen Sirius like that and they were shocked.

The anger and cruelty and, dare she say, hate was so out of character for Sirius that Peia was frozen, not realizing that there were tears running down her face. She felt a comforting hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Remus watching, concerned.

"Don't take what he said seriously. I've only seen Sirius like that three times since I've known him and it's only when he gets defensive about something. He was probably feeling guilty about making Ryan cry and decided to take his anger at himself out on you."

"He called her a whore." James said quietly. "This stays between the three of us." He clarified, but knew he didn't need to. They would never tell anyone. "They were talking and it came up how he was only not talking to me because I was hurting her and then somehow she got to it was all his fault that her and I are fighting, which is crap. But knowing Sirius, he was feeling guilty about the hallway fight and that caused him to get defensive. He most likely let out that same dark laugh and had that exact tome. I think his exact words were 'I may have said something along the times of "It's not my fault you're giving it to any guy who asks"' Knowing Sirius that was an exact quote. He then proceeded to tell her that he didn't make her announce to the whole school that she's a whore."

Remus and Peia were both staring at him, dumbfounded.

"But he was right." Peia whispered. She saw the pissed off glares being sent her way by two very intimidating boys and quickly amended her statement. "No, no not about that. He couldn't be farther from the truth there. No he was right; I am an awful best friend."

Both boys were quick to deny it but she wouldn't listen.

"I ignored her." They fell silent, waiting for her to explain. "I walked into the room late, probably around eleven. Al and Tay were sitting on Ry's bed rubbing her back and hugging her. But I was tired so I ignored her and went to bed. I just figured she was upset about you and that we'd talk about it in the morning, but she was still asleep when I got up."

She hadn't spoken above the softest whisper, but neither boy had missed a word.

"Okay." James said. "You probably could have handled that better." He broke off as Remus elbowed him in the ribs and he had to scramble to stay on the bench. "Damn it Remus, how many times do we have to tell you? Watch the elbows. That's gonna leave a bruise." He studiously ignored Remus' scoff of "Girl" and Peia's small giggle. "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted—" he glared at Remus who looked back innocently "you could have handled that better." As Remus raised his elbow for another vicious jab to the lung, James hurried on. "But, she'll forgive you. Ry knows that you love her. Almost as much as I do." Remus hesitated for a second before slowly lowering his elbow. James let out the breath he'd been holding only to suck it back in when he was hit upside the head. "What the hell was that for?!"

"'Almost as much as I do'?" Remus mocked. "You couldn't just leave that off. It was almost thoughtful of you before that."

They stopped bickering at the sound of another small giggle from Peia. The girls always thought it was funny when Remus got like that. It was just so out of character for the serious, quiet Marauder. She looked at them hopefully. "Do you really think she will forgive me?"

"Of course she will." Remus was quick to reassure her before James could say something else stupid. "Just explain to her that you didn't realize something was honestly wrong and she will in no time. Now Sirius, on the other hand, I'm not so sure about."

Peia got up and smiled at both of them. "Thanks guys, I needed that." Then she let out a sigh and straightened her shoulders. "I better go find Ry and make sure she's not planning a horrific murder."

James stood too. "I better so too. I was supposed to help Sirius form a game plan for his groveling."

They left Remus sitting there chuckling, wonder how oblivious those two thought he was.

Ryan lay awake in her bed, thinking about what happened yesterday. Every time she heard Sirius' words in her head her eyes filled with tears again. He had never spoken to anyone in that tone before that tone before and it gave her a funny feeling in her stomach that she was the one he used it on.

She didn't like thinking about that, so she thought back to her talk with Al and Tay.

She saw the door open slowly, and she watched Peia stick her head in. Ryan's face darkened a little as she ignored her best friend. Peia slowly walked over to Ryan's bed and sat on the edge. Al and Tay, who had been sitting around wanting to make sure Ryan wasn't alone, got the hint that this was going to be an awkward talk and snuck silently out of the room. Peia shifted uncomfortably while Ryan continued to ignore her.

"Hey Ryan." She whispered.

"Cassiopeia." Ryan replied.

Peia flinched but nodded her head. "I understand. I totally deserve that."

The made Ry sit up, no longer apathetic. "I don't want your understanding." She hissed. "I don't want anything from you now. What I wanted was my best friend last night." Peia flinched again as she was forcibly reminded of Sirius growling 'Where were you last night when she could have used her best friend?'. Ryan didn't soften at the sight of her best friend recoiling as if she'd been slapped. If anything, it made Ryan even madder. "Where were you last night? Huh. I sat here for hours crying my eyes out waiting for you. Tay was worried sick because I wouldn't talk and Al was threatening bodily harm to whoever had hurt me. I never said a word, but they never left. Then you finally show up and I go to fling myself at my BEST FRIEND and have her tell me everything's going to be okay; to make it better. But does that happen? No, my BEST FRIEND ignores me and goes to sleep. You abandoned me when I needed you most Peia."

There was nothing Peia could say to that, so she just stared at Ryan's bed, fighting back the tears. It was all too close to what Sirius had said.

Ryan thought back to what Tay had said after Peia had ignored her. 'Give her a chance to explain. Maybe something's wrong. Don't just to conclusions.'

"Why Peia?" Ryan whispered, sounding as if she was broken. "Why?"

Peia didn't say anything. There was nothing that could make this better.

"Make me understand Peia." Ryan's voice was growing louder, the anger from earlier coming back. "Make me understand why my best friend, someone who swears she loves me more than anyone else in the world, MY SISTER," she screamed the last part, pointing at her wrist. The girls all considered the tattoos the scars from their blood sister ceremony. "would walk away from me seeing how upset I was. I needed you Peia." Ryan's voice broke here, becoming softer as she fought back the tears again. "Al and Tay were there but it just wasn't the same. I needed you to tell me he was wrong." She quickly dashed away the one tear that fell. "Like James would have done." She broke off then, comprehension dawning. She was having a very insightful few days. First seeing what was making Sirius so dependant on her, and now with Peia. "That it, isn't it. You thought that I was crying about James again, and you didn't want to deal with it. So you ignored me." She paused, waiting, hoping for Peia to deny it. She waited in vain. There was nothing but silence. No vehement exclamation of lies, no hurt disbelief that she could think that. Nothing.

Ryan let out a small laugh. "Unbelievable." She jumped off the bed, unable to sit still. "Why Oppi?"

Peia winced at the use of her nickname. Only Ryan knew or used it. They had come up with their nicknames for each other in first year. Ryan called her 'Oppi' and she called Ry 'P.K.' for Peyton Kogan. It also stood for penalty kick because Ry was obsessed with American soccer. Ryan paused in her pacing when Peia finally spoke.

"I don't know P.K.. There's just been a lot going on and I don't want to upset you, so I feel like I can't talk to you. I was so happy last night and I didn't want to hurt you by being happy while you're upset. But as happy as I am, I'm confused and I couldn't talk to you about it"

Ryan didn't know how it happened, but she had gone from being irate with Piea to consoling her in a heartbeat. "Oppi, look at me." Peia finally pulled her eyes from the apparently fascinating quilt. "Now you listen to me closely because I'm only going to say this once. No matter what happens, don't ever feel like you can't talk to me. Ever. Especially when you're confused. And when I'm upset I need your problems to distract me from mine."

Peia smiled and Ryan gasped. She had never seen that look on Peia's face. It was shy!

"I know right." Peia cried. "But there's this boy." Again the gasp from Ryan and the cry of "I know!" from Peia. "I never call them boys. But that's what he is. The smallest things make him deliriously happy, and he constantly has a smile on his face, and his eyes just seem to sparkle. It's like nothing bad can happen to him. But the way he looks at me and makes me feel? Nothing boyish about it."

"He sounds perfect Oppi. So what's the problem? Why the confusion?"

"It's complicated. We've been talking a lot lately but he's never made it seem like he's interested. Maybe he's not into me P.K.."

Ryan was quick to reassure her. "Of course he is Oppi. It's not possible that he isn't."

Peia just smiled. Ryan was always convinced that no one could not like her. She didn't deserve a best friend like that. Especially after last night. Suddenly, something that Ryan had said earlier sank in. "What do you mean, you needed me to tell you he was wrong?" 'She better not mean what I think she means otherwise someone was going to be missing a very important part of his anatomy. A part he was very fond of. And then she would curse him bald. A fate worse than death to him.'

It was Ryan's turn to stare at the quilt with tears in her eyes, as she remembered Sirius' words. "He called me–"

She was cut off by Peia. "I know what he called you! And you had better _**never **_even _**contemplate**_ the _**possibility**_ that he _**might**_ be _**anything**_ other than _**completely**_ wrong."

Ryan couldn't help but smile. Only Peia could use a sentence like that and have it sound completely normal. The smile faded as she thought about it again. "But what if he's right Oppi? I mean, who has sex right after turning fourteen?!"

"Don't! This boy, he's important to you?"

"Very."

"And you love him?"

"Yes."

"Then don't you dare let anything that that selfish, stupid, over-grown child says to you make what happened between you and him any less special. I don't care if you were fourteen or forty, you could never be a whore."

Ryan scooted down the bed, curling into a tiny ball at Peia's side and Peia wrapped her arms around her.

"Thanks Oppi. You're right, he doesn't know jack about what happened so what gives him the right to call me a whore. And this boy? Whoever he is, he sounds perfect for you and I'll do whatever I have to in order to make it work. It will work Oppi. Promise."

Peia just squeezed Ryan tighter, hoping she was right. "And P.K.?" Ryan looked up at her and smiled. "I'm going to make things right between you and Sirius if it's the last thing I do."

"Why?" Ryan asked, stunned, with a small blush.

"Because I know how mush you care about him."

"How?" She was more than stunned now.

"You're my best friend. It's my job. And I will make it happen. Promise."

Bother girls leaned farther into the hug, and Peia's arms tightened when she felt Ryan's tears on her skin.

"I really like him Oppi. And he thinks I'm a whore."

Oh yeah. He was so bald.

Two hours later the girls were lying together on Ryan's bed, side by side with arms lopped together. They hadn't moved or spoken at all. Ryan thought Peia had fallen asleep when she suddenly spoke up.

"Why is he so important P.K.? Not long ago you wouldn't voluntarily talk to him."

"I know and I'm confused about it too. But that day he ran to find me, he was so sweet. He's been nothing but amazing since then, well except today. And he's never been mean. Sure he fights with me but that's usually just him being protective about the boys I date, and I go and be a bitch to him and he always walks away. He never says anything awful back. And-" She broke off and blushed. And not just a little one, her whole face was practically maroon.

Peia let out a squeal of delight. "Spill! Now!" She was bouncing on the bed in excitement.

"It's just . . . umm . . . well you see . . ." She couldn't seem to spit out the words. "Okay, so that day in the common room you weren't there but I . . . I hugged him. And my arms were around his waist and my face was in his chest. I fit perfectly against him, and he put his arms around me and put his cheek on top of my head. And it was just . . ." She couldn't seem to find an appropriate word, so she turned to Peia accusatorially. "Why was I not informed of the body that that boy posses?!"

Peia let out a shriek and tackled Ryan, while laughing hysterically. "That is so fabulous. And I know what you mean. Even at fifteen that boy had the body of a greek god. So I can only imagine what it's like now." She looked at Ryan to see that she was turning an even brighter red than before. She let out another squeal. "Oh my god! You've been thinking about him naked!!!" She fell off the bed trying to avoid the pillow that she was being pummeled with while laughing hysterically again.

"Will you shut you're trap!" Ryan hissed down at her.

"Why? Who's going to hear us? All of the people crouched outside the door listening to us be silent for the last two hours?" Peia shot back sarcastically. Ryan just glared at her as she bounced back onto the bed.

"Fine. But I was not picturing him naked!" Peia shot her an amused look that clearly stated 'Sure you weren't'. "I wasn't." She paused. "Consciously." Peia looked confused now. "It was a dream. They best dirty dream I've ever had." Once again Peia couldn't control her laugher and ended up on the floor. Ryan seemed indignant now. "It was not funny. It was amazing."

Peia sprawled out on the bed, looking at Ryan expectantly. "Don't leave me hanging P.K.. Give me all the details."

Ryan giggled and managed to only turn a pale pink. "Not happening." She was Peia's pout and revised. "At least not right now Oppi. Give me a little time to get used to the fact that I had one about him and then we'll talk." Peia brightened at that before a mischievous smile that scared Ryan broke over her face.

"So P.K., I'm curious" she said with a wicked smirk.

"And now I'm scared."

"You said that it was the best dirty dream of your life. Well that stands to reason that you've had a couple before." Ryan had started out a dull pink that was steadily getting darker.

"You're enjoying this way too much Oppi."

"Hey, you've been teasing me for sleeping with him for a year and a half, and now you tell me you've been having eye sex with him for over a week! And you've had dreams about a boy that you didn't tell me about!?! How can you expect me not to enjoy this?"

Ryan snorted. "Eye sex?"

"Yes! Eye sex!" Peia sounded completely put out that Ryan was laughing at her expression. "Undressing him with your mind. Imagining his package. Boinking (boynking) him with you eyes! Eye sex!"

Ryan let out another snort. "Boinking?"

"Yes boinking! Banging. Doing. Fu-" She broke off as she saw Ryan trying in vain to control her giggles. "Don't thing that distracting me will keep you from telling me who you've been screwing in you're sleep!" Both girls locked eyes for a few seconds before falling into hysterics.

They passed the rest of the day together just talking and laughing; the fight from earlier completely forgotten and Peia completely absolved from her lapse of friendship. They talked more about Sirius and Peia's mysterious crush that she refused to name and Peia helped Ryan come up with a plan to have Sirius begging on his knees for forgiveness.

Little did they know that in another part of the castle Sirius and James were planning his strategy to do just that.


	8. Plotting and Monthly Massages

James went to the boys' dorm to check for Sirius and when he wasn't there he had to dig through Sirius', Remus' and Peter's trunks for the map before finally finding it in the bottom of his own. He found Sirius in the south south-east tower which faced the lake, not to be confused with the south north-east tower that had a wonderful view of the forest. He let out a sigh. Of course Sirius would pick that tower. It was the tallest point in the castle and since it stated from the ground floor, it had an insane number of steps to the top.

"Bloody Sirius and his sodding need to climb 2000 steps every time he and R.P. fight." James muttered to himself as he started.

Under five minutes later, a new record for him and a damn fine one if he did say so himself, he was out of breath, cursing Sirius, R.P, her boyfriend and pretty much the world in general. He flung open the door and yelled "You better be damn grateful that I'm such a fan-bloody-tastic friend to climb all the way up here to help you plan the seduction of my baby sister."

Sirius had been pacing back and forth along the tower not paying any attention, but when he heard seduction and Ryan mentioned in the same sentence, he whipped around. "Seduction? Do I get to seduce Ry? Do you think it will work? No, of course it won't. She thinks that I think that she's a whore. And she would probably maim me if I tried. Maybe if I hugged her. I think she liked it when she hugged me." By then he had completely forgotten James existed, much less was in the same room, and was talking to himself. "And it felt so nice to have her pressed against me. All soft and warm and –"

James finally cut him off, feeling incredibly uncomfortable.

"Bloody hell. Shut it would you! I'll make a deal with you. I'll plan your groveling and seduction perfectly. So she won't be able to say no. Sound good?" Sirius just nodded, willing to do anything James asked if it would make things right with Ryan. "And in exchange, whenever you are in my presence, you won't even THINK about how nice she feels pressed against you or I will make sure that you sing soprano for the rest of your unnatural life. Do we have a deal?"

Sirius nodded frantically. 'There's no down side to this' he thought. 'I'll have Ryan and all I have to do i8s not talk about how much I love her in from of James. IT's not like he can read my—"

"And don't think I won't know." He shot Sirius a look. "Because I always know."

Sirius just stared at him, mildly creeped out. 'Could James really—"

"Yes. And let's just leave it at that." Sirius' jaw dropped, thoroughly creeped out now. "So here's what you're going to do."

Sirius shook his head and they both leaned in so they could plot.

Lunch that day passed with neither pair, Ryan and Peia nor James and Sirius, showing up, leaving Remus, Peter, Tay and Al worried. The girls had been avoiding their dorm to hive Ryan and Peia time to work it out and Remus and Peter couldn't find the map to locate James and Sirius. But as worried as they were, they were all surprised when they showed up for dinner. James and Sirius were sitting with Remus and Peter but they were lost in their own conversation, still thinking of ideas for apologizing to Ryan. When Ryan and Peia walked in they both froze, waiting to see what would happen. But they were in for a surprise. During the girl's day in the dorm, they had come up with the perfect strategy. Ry would simply act like nothing was wrong. She would go on letting James ignore her and she would still hang out with Sirius like the3 fight had never happened.

They saw Tay and Al sitting a little farther down the table and walked towards them. As they passed the boys Peia said "Hello boys." and Ryan smiled at Sirius before asking in a small voice "Are we still on for tonight?" She and Peia were having the worst time trying to hold in their giggles at the stunned looks on James, Sirius and Remus' faces. Peter just looked lost. 'Come to think of it, he's been missing for a while.' Ry thought, but pushed it to the back of her mind as she watched Sirius. He was staring at her like she had lost her mine, but she just gave him a small smile. She saw James elbow him and he immediately nodded.

"Absolutely. Just let me know when. I'll be there."

"Ummm . . . let's say your room about 9?"

He gave her an excited smile. "Sounds good."

She gave him one last smile then she and Peia walked away.

James immediately punched Sirius in the shoulder.

"What the hell was that?"

Sirius shot him a glare and punched him back. "I have no idea. I was sure that she would scream and slap me. Or even ignore me, but never just forget about it. Do you think this means she's not mad?"

"That's not what I meant wanker. What plans do you have? How could you not tell me that you have plans with my baby sister? And of course she's still mad."

Sirius' face fell before he looked at James disbelievingly. "Prongs, what's today?"

He shot Sirius an incredulous look. "It's Saturday Padfoot. You know that."

Sirius just stared at him, wondering how anyone could be so oblivious. "Not the day. The date."

"It's the 15th." James replied, looking at Sirius expectantly.

'Wait for it.' Sirius thought. 'Wait for it.' He could almost see the light go off in James' head when it finally clicked. 'Bingo.'

James put a smile on his face but his eyes betrayed his hurt. "She asked you to do it, huh?"

"Yeah. I mean, you guys are still fighting and she didn't want to put you on the spot by asking you if you still didn't want to be around her. I can tell her no if you want me to. She would come to you then."

James thought about the look on Sirius' face when Ryan had made plans with him. "No Padfoot. This is good for you. I'm happy she asked you to do this. Just . . . do me a favor?"

"Anything."

""Do it in the common room?" Sirius gave him a confused look. "I'm used to the fact that you're in love with her and I'm okay with it, really. I'm happy that it's you. Just don't ask me to be okay with you being alone in our room with her half naked. Please, not yet."

"Of course Prongs, but—"

"I know. I'll get used to it eventually but it's all just a little much right now."

Sirius nodded again. "The common room is just fine."

James gave him a grateful smile and conversation turned to finalizing their next prank.

Ryan and Peia sat down with Tay and Al and Peia said to Ryan "How could you not tell me you have a date with Sirius tonight!"

They all saw her blush a deep red but surprisingly it was Tay who took action. She stood up and stepped onto the bench, then up onto the tabletop. She stepped across the table, hopped down onto the bench and plopped down next to Ryan. As she sat down she grabbed Ryan's arm to stop her as she tried to get away.

"Spill!"

Ryan Peia and Al all stared at her.

"What you know you're curious too. The only time I've ever seen her blush this much was when she was telling up about losing her virginity." Tay's eyes got huge as a thought popped into her head. "Oh my goddess!" The handful of people that hadn't been watching them before turned to stare at Tay. "You're going to jump him!"

Ryan hid her head in her arms on the table and Tay finally noticed the whole Great Hall staring at them. She waved her had at them dismissively. "Nothing to see here. Go back to your business." She turned back to Ryan. "Well Ry?"

"I am not going to jump him!" she practically screamed. "I've never jumped anyone. . . Well, except for that one time." She paused for a second, thinking. "But that doesn't count because it was only—" She cut herself off and buried her head in her arms again.

Al squealed and Peia grabbed Ryan's arm to drag her sitting upright again. "Only who?"

"No one! I'm not jumping anyone!" It was only then that Ryan realized the whole Great Hall was silent and staring at her. "Oh my goddess!" she moaned and slunk down on her bench, trying to disappear under the table.

Suddenly there was a bang form the Slytherin table and everyone's attention turned that way. The table was obscured by smoke but the yells and curses were perfectly clear. When the smoke finally disappeared, it was visible that every Slytherin was sporting a different neon colored robe and that every last one of them, even the girls, was bald.

Ryan smiled and looked down the table. James caught her eye and sent her a huge smile and Sirius winked at her. Remus looked at her shaking his head but still smiling.

After the laughter had died down, James' voice could be heard throughout the hall. "Hmm . . . they were supposed to have neon colored hair."

"And be naked." Sirius added.

Everyone stared at them in a slightly horrified silence before—

"How many times do we have to go over this?" Everyone was surprised by Remus' outburst. "No matter how many times I was left standing completely freaking bare-assed with every hair on my body neon green while you were trying to make me bald with green robes you wouldn't listen to me. Now you screw up the spell you know how to do!"

Ryan, Peia, and Tay exchanged an amused look before they noticed almost all of the girls in the hall, including Al, were eyeing Remus like they were going to jump him.

James and Sirius fidgeted in their seats before Sirius asked Remus "So . . . what did we do wrong?"

Remus let out an exasperated sigh and went to answer but was cut off before he could say anything.

"What happened Mr. Black" they all jumped when Professor McGonagall's voice was heard behind them. "Was that you and Mr. Potter switched your objects. The first part of the spell was for the neon color and you should have put hair there but instead you put clothes."

"Ahh . . ." James and Sirius chorused. "Well . . ."

"What am I going to do with the two of you?" McGonagall sounded exasperated but she couldn't hide the amusement in her eyes.

"You really want to let us go with a warning." Sirius said.

"Because that was a seriously wicked bit of magic." James finished.

McGonagall gave them a skeptical look but before she could comment Remus let out a scoff.

"A seriously wicked bit of magic that you fu—" a stern glance from McGonagall had him quickly changing his phrasing. "—lubbed up."

Sirius got an offended look on his face and shouted. "Oh like you could do any better Moony!"

The rest of the school just rolled their eyes because they knew that Remus could indeed do better.

Remus just smirked and waved his wand at James and Sirius. Without him saying a word another cloud of smoke, this one significantly smaller but more dense, encompassed them. But everyone could hear crystal clear.

"Damn it, fucker. Don't you ever run things past your brain before you let them come out your mouth?" James yelled.

When it cleared, James was left standing here with neon pink hair while Sirius had neon purple. Both were completely naked except for matching pink and purple striped loin clothes. Including eyebrows, all other hair on their body was the opposite color of the hair on their heads.

All of the boys in the hall, except James, Sirius and Remus, started laughing hysterically. Even the professors were trying to hide their smiles. James and Sirius however were glaring at Remus, who was smirking smugly in their direction. Every girl in the hall, including the Slytherins, was eyeing them like pieces of meat. Every girl except Ryan. She let out a screech and slapped her hand over her eyes.

"Remus! How could you? You've scarred me for life now that I've seen my brother nearly naked. I'm going to have to bleach my brain now." She complained, pouting at him.

He turned to her and sent her a cheeky smile before bowing deeply towards her. "My sincerest apologies baby doll. It's a horrid sight isn't it? I have to vomit daily at the inevitable occurrence of him walking around this way. But I couldn't just let it go, my dearest, it was a matter of honor."

"Yeah yeah." She mumbled. "You guys and your bloody 'honor'." Still, she couldn't stop from smiling. Sometime in the past few years, Remus had gotten in the habit of making very formal old-fashioned speeches to her when he was teasing her. Neither could pinpoint when, how, or why it had started, but she loved it.

"As entertaining as this all has been," McGonagall cut in before anything else could be said. "Black, Potter, Lupin. Detention, Monday night for the use of magic outside the classroom. Black, Potter. Detention, Tuesday night for an unprovoked attack on another student. 15 points each from Gryffindor, Black and Potter, for fighting. Potter another 10 for language. Lupin, 25 points to Gryffindor from a 'seriously wicked bit of magic' that you managed to not 'flub up'." With that she walked away ignoring James and Sirius' protects.

"Mr. Black and Mr. Potter, one more thing." They both turned towards her apprehensively. "The next time you feel the need to air your exhibitionist tendencies; try not to do so in the Great Hall."

Anyone paying close enough attention at the time would have witnessed one of the rarest sights in the world; James Potter and Sirius Black actually blushed.

"Don't worry Professor." Remus said. "I'll keep them in line."

"See that you do Mr. Lupin. See that you do." And with that she walked away.

James and Sirius turned as one to yell as Remus but he got up and walked over to where the girls sat. Taking a seat next to Ryan, he studiously ignored them for the rest of dinner.

Nine o'clock couldn't come quick enough for Sirius.

It seemed Ryan had only blinked and Peia was pushing her down the stairs to go meet Sirius.

She was so nervous she could barely breathe. She froze at the top of the stairs and looked at the girls, frantic. She was waiting for Peia t give her a pep talk, but it was Tay who spoke up.

"Why are you nervous Ry?"

"Oh, I don't know-" She let out a mildly hysterical laugh. "-could it be because he already thinks I'm a whore and now he'll see this as me throwing myself at him and it will just cement his view of me?"

Tay pulled her into a tight hug; rubbing her back and soothing her before she pushed Ryan back an arms length away, hands on Ryan's shoulders so she could lecture her.

"Damn it Ry, we talked about this didn't we?" Ryan looked at the floor and offered a half shrug. They had indeed talked about it. After dinner the four of them had holed up in their room so Ryan could tell Tay and Al what happened and explain that what she and Sirius were doing tonight was NOT a date.

"We assured you that you are in no way a whore, right?" Again the half shrug. "Then I'm going to share something with you that will hopefully drive home the other point which we were trying to make that you didn't seem to quite grasp. And I noticed using my awesome observation skills, so there will be no arguing." Peia and Al laughed at that and Tay reached out for Ryan's face. She put a finger under Ryan's chin and tilted her face up so Ryan would be forced to look at her. "He doesn't think you're a whore." Tay paused and looked Ryan directly in the eye, making sure she was paying attention. "That boy wants you so bad he can't think straight. You've got his brain turned to goo. That's the only reason he said that. He was jealous because he hates that someone else touched you. In his mind, he's the only one allowed to touch."

Ryan flung herself at Tay and hugged her tight. "Love you Tay."

"Love you too." Tay whispered back.

Ryan cleared her throat and let out a laugh. "Even if you are completely and irreparably delusional."

The other three stared at her like she was crazy.

"You know they have rules about you, right?" Al asked.

"What!" Ryan yelped incredulously.

"We don't know what the actual rules are." Tay explained. "But he day you disappeared we were talking with Sirius, Remus and Peter about why James was mad at you. I said something about James not being mad for the reasons we thought, and Remus said of course James was mad that someone touched you. It wasn't allowed and every guy in the school knew it."

"We meant to ask them about it," Peia added. "But then we couldn't find you and we got distracted. I actually forgot about it until Tay said something about Sirius being the only one allowed to touch. I wonder if they put that exception in their rules." She said with a laugh.

"Probably not. James is so protective of you, he would kill even Sirius." Al said, smiling at the though.

Ryan just shifted uncomfortably at Al's comment, wondering what they would say if they knew James was the one touching.

"Ok, enough stalling." Peia nearly shouted. "IT's time for you to go get half naked with that gorgeous hunk of man."

Ryan blushed, Tay smiled and Al looked like she was going to vomit.

"Oh come off it Al." Tay said teasingly. "Sirius Black is gorgeous and we all know it. You might as well admit it." She just smiled at Al as Ryan and Peia laughed. They loved this more outspoken side of Tay.

"Don't make me vomit Tay. I just don't see the fascination with him. He's average looking at best."

"And we all know who you find a 'gorgeous hunk of man', right Al?" Ry said, poking her in the ribs. Tay and Peia laughed but Al just glared at her.

"This isn't about me." Al said looking a bit haughty. "This is about the fact that you're avoiding spending any 'alone time' with Black." She arched an eyebrow at Ryan almost daring her to deny it. "Not that I blame you." She couldn't help but add.

Ryan blushed at having been found out. She put on her saddest, most pathetic face. "Please don't make me do this. I changed my mind. I'm too mad at him to pretend like nothing happened."

Peia and Tay exchanged a look before they each grabbed an arm and began to frog march her down the stairs. "Yeah. Not happening." Peia stated. "You're going down there and you're going to enjoy it. You're going to go up to the boy's dorm, lay down on his bed surrounded by ridiculously fantastic smelling pillows and he's going to help you relax."

They got to the bottom of the stairs and were surprised to find Sirius waiting there. He sent her an uncertain smile.

"Um . . . I thought maybe we could do it down here instead . . . By the fire . . . For warmth and such . . ."

He seemed so awkward that Ryan couldn't help but smile and she felt herself relax. She looked over by the fire and discovered the real reason for the change of venue. James was sprawled on the couch watching them from the corner of his eye.

"That sounds good. Did you happen to get the-"

"Yeah. I got it from James." He interrupted.

They walked over to the fire and joined the rest of the group that had assembled there: James on the couch facing the fire, Remus and Peter on one and the girls collapsed onto the other. In the middle there was an assortment of pillows and blankets and a wooden chest.

Ryan plopped down on one of the blankets on her stomach and pulled one of the pillows under her head, sniffing it discreetly. It was the best smell she'd ever encountered. Peia saw her sniffing it and gave her a wink to which Ryan responded by sticking out her tongue. She listened to the conversation going on around her; about the outfit that Allegra Jordan had worn last Hogsmeade, the boys were all for it and the girls said she looked like a skank, but didn't join in. She felt Sirius sit down beside her and then the tell-tale chill that signified the transfiguration of her shirt into a bikini top. She heard the chest open and was surrounde3d by the smell of her favorite pink grapefruit massage oil.

Sirius rubbed his hands together to warm them and as soon as she felt his tentative touch between her shoulder blades she melted into her pillow. As he got more comfortable and used more force, all of Ryan's problems seemed to fade. She forgot that James wasn't talking to her and that Peia was disappearing at random times. That she and Sirius had been yelling yesterday and she said some pretty nasty things. That she and Finn had gotten into a fight that afternoon and that they seemed to be doing that more and more.

Sirius had moved so his legs strattled her hips and was massaging her lower back and Ryan swore she was in heaven. Goddess did she love the 15th of every month. Though it was usually James doing this.

Ryan was so relaxed that she nearly jumped out of her skin when Sirius leaned forward and whispered in her ear.

"Let me know if I'm missing anywhere."

Ryan couldn't do anything but nod. She was brought back to the conversation going on around her by James' protest.

"-not possible. Allegra is a nice girl. She's not like that."

"Oh, are you talking about how she's sleeping with the Ravenclaw prefect so that he'll let her cheat off him in Charms?" Ry asked.

"What!" all four boys chorused, clearly shocked by this bit of news.

"You mean you didn't know!" Tay said incredulously.

"We're talking about Allegra, right?" Peter clarified. "Allegra Jordan. 6th year Gryffindor. Quiet. Shy."

Peia laughed. "Yes. Allegra Jordan. 6th year Gryffindor who was messing around with the 7th year Hufflepuff prefect in exchange for her Herbology homework from last year."

There was silence for about thirty seconds before-

"_HER_homework?" Sirius squeaked.

"Yep. The female Hufflepuff prefect." Ta confirmed. There was silence again for a good minute before Remus broke it.

"I heard about that, but I didn't think it was actually true." He said in a strangled whisper.

"Oh, it's true." The girls chorused.

The boys turned as one to the other side of the common room where Allegra was sitting with some of her friends. Their mouths were all hanging open and they were looking at her through new eyes. The girls just shook their heads.

"That is one thing I'll just never understand." Ryan said, bringing the boys attention back to the conversation.

"What?" Sirius asked.

"Why you-"

"-Are naked, being strattled by Sirius freaking Black!" a loud voice cut her off.

Ryan jumped at the sound and almost dislodged Sirius. Sirius was unaffected however and proceeded to calmly pour more massage oil into his hands and went back to work on her suddenly re-tense shoulders.

"You know RY," he commented calmly "I really like this smell. IT's not really flowery like some girls wear. It's still girly but it's got a kick to it. You always smell better than everyone else."

"Shut up Sirius." She said, unable to keep the laughter out of her voice.

Finn just stared at all of them. James, Remus and Peter were all trying to hold in their laughter. What Finn didn't know was that those three knew just how much Sirius really did like how Ryan smelled. The girls just rolled their eyes at Sirius' attempt to piss off Finn.

Finn just stood there fuming. Ryan hadn't even looked at him. She was still laying there, her eyes closed, putty in Sirius Black's hands. Everyone was silent waiting for Finn to explode when Ryan spoke.

"Lower Sirius." He went down to her lower back and smiled when she unconsciously let out a low moan. "Oh, right there." She let out a breathy sigh.

Finn finally snapped. "Ryan!"

She slowly opened one eye, but made no move to sit up. "Yes?"

"What are you doing?"

Before Ryan could answer, Sirius countered with "Why are you here?"

That stumped everyone before James asked "How did you get in here?"

"That's my fault." A tiny vice piped up. A small first year boy stepped from behind Finn. "Sorry Ryan. I didn't think there was anything wrong with letting him in. You guys do this every month."

Ryan just sent him a smile. "It's okay Caden. Finn's just overreacting. You were fine to let him in." She sent the small boy another smile and he visibly relaxed.

"I am not overreacting!" Everyone turned their attention back to Finn, Ryan finally opening both eyes but still not moving from under Sirius. "You're laying naked under the school's man whore and you say I'm overreacting? How do you think I should react?"

"First of all," Ryan said in a hard cold voice "don't you dare call him that. Sirius Black had never been anything other than a gentleman. Every boy should treat girls like him. Second, I am not naked. If you would actually pay attentioninsetead of spouting unfounded accusations, you would have seen that I have on pants and a top. Therefore, no nakedness. Third, how you should have reacted is you should have talked to me. Alone. Not screaming at me in front of my entire common room. And I would have told you that this is a monthly thing. Sirius is doing it as a fovor to me because James and I aren't speaking right now." She arched an eyebrow at him. "Are you done being a prat now?"

He just let you a sigh. "How long have you been doing this?"

"Every month since . . . oh goddess . . ." she looked at James. "Third year?" she asked.

"Second." He said with a smile.

"Oh." Finn said, trying to keep the anger and jealousy out of his voice. "I was just coming to apologize for earlier. I'm sorry I yelled."

Ryan smiled beautifully up at him. "Me too. I was going to find you first thing tomorrow." At that moment, Sirius hit a particularly tense spot and, closing her eyes, Ryan let out another low moan. Since her eyes were closed and everyone else was trying to hold back their laugher at Sirius' theatrics, no one saw the pure rage that flashed through Finn's eyes.

"Ok." He forced out. "I'll let you get back to your massage. See you tomorrow?" he asked but Ryan was already lost in the relaxation again and all he got was a vague grunt. Everyone else had already gone back to their conversation so Finn walked out, unnoticed and enraged.


	9. Monthly Massages and Weekend Plans

**A/N: Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot and the girls.**

"So Hogsmeade next weekend." Al said. "What is everyone doing?" she hinted, looking at Remus.

"Boys weekend." Sirius said. "All of us are between girls at the moment, so we're ditching the lot of them and just hanging out. Probably spend the whole time getting pissed at the Hogs Head after a quick trip to Zonko's to restock." He looked to the other three for confirmation and they all nodded.

"Is there a reason you're all going to get completely pissed or is it just for the hell of it?" Peia asked.

"Well, Remmy here," Remus grimaced at the ridiculous nickname and glared at James who ignored him "was just heartlessly chucked by the she devil, so we're on a mission to cheer him up!"

"Don't call her that." was Remus' instinctive response. He was so used to defending her that it was second nature to him. He didn't need to think about it. It was automatic. "And you can't cheer me up is I was happy to see her go."

Everyone laughed but Ryan was confused.

"Wait! When did this happen? I didn't know she dumped you." She gave him a sympathetic smile before her eyes narrowed. "That horrid wench." She hissed.

Remus just smiled at her. "It happened yesterday."

"How did you even end up going out with her?" Tay asked.

The guys all started laughing and the girls shared last looks.

"I really have no idea." Remus admitted as the other boys continued to laugh hysterically at him. "One day she just walked up and said 'So what are we doing in Hogsmeade this weekend?' and it just went from there. No one was more surprised than me when she told everyone she was my girlfriend."

"You know," Tay said "For all Hufflepuffs are supposed to be sweet and nice, she really was a horrid wench."

It was the girls turn to burst into laughter while the boys stared at Tay in shock. They had never known sweet Taylor Zahara to say anything like that. The looks on the boy's faces just make the girls laugh even more.

"I'd like to introduce you to another side of little Tay Z." Peia said with a laugh. "A side with a little more bite."

James gave Tay an appreciative smile and said "I think I'm going to like this new side of you Miss Zahara."

Peia shot him a look that no one noticed before responding "Yeah. Until that bite is directed towards you."

"Oh but she would never say anything mean to me. Would you Tay Tay?"

Tay just stared at him. "Call me Tay Tay ever again and you'll spend the rest of your life in love with Snape." The boys all stared at her in horror while the girls tried to muffle their laughter. "And don't think I won't. Keep in mind that we've all seen the way he looks at you." She paused before adding one final thing. "And I've heard that he is fairly . . . dominant."

That was it. The girls couldn't take anymore and they fell into fits of hysterical giggles while Tay just smirked at the boys, who were staring at her in terror.

"That's just vile." Peter said in a choked voice, while James tried to burrow himself into the couch whimpering "Please . . . Merlin . . . No." over and over. Sirius froze over Ryan, his hands stilling as he started at Taylor, looking like he was fighting back the vomit.

Remus was by far the funniest though. He had got completely still. His eyes were closed and his face was scrunched up and all color had fled his face. Suddenly he started shaking his head furiously. "Dear Merlin. Bad, bad mental pictures."

The girls broke and started laughing again and James, Sirius and Peter all winced, the unwanted mental pictures in their minds now.

"So." Sirius started in an effort to cleanse his mind. "What are you girls up to next weekend?"

"Date." Tay said, sounding completely unenthusiastic.

"Date." Ryan agreed, her tone exactly the same.

"Keeping our options open." Peia and Al replied simultaneously.

"Why are you two going on dates if you don't want to?" Sirius asked, the idea of doing something he didn't want to completely foreign to him.

Tay let out a deep sign, her face showing nothing but contempt. "Hayden says we need to 'reconnect' away from everyone and everything that distracts us. I have a feeling he's recreating our first dat. A picnic on the far side of the lake, just us talking and getting to know each other. If he 'accidentally' knocks me into the lake, I'll beat him senseless."

"So again, what are you going?" James sounded confused.

"I still love him. I think. Maybe. It's just, we're always fighting. The only time we don't fight is when we're-" She stopped herself but her blush let everyone know what she was going to say. "And I don't like him enough right now to not fight." She said giving a little laugh.

Al gave her a supportive hug and everyone else shot her sympathetic smiles.

"So Baby doll, what are you stepping out with our young man if you are not amenable to the proposal?"

Ryan laughed and Sirius smile down at her, still massaging.

"Finn feels I've been neglecting him. Says I've been pouting about James and spending all my time with Sirius or the girls. So we're spending the whole day together, just the two of us. He says he wants to prove how much he loves me and how 'right' we are together." She was so relaxed from Sirius' magic fingers that she didn't notice Sirius stiffen over her, the panicked looks the boys shared, or the quelling looks the girls sent them that promised painful death if they interfered with Ryan's personal life.

"Which to him means lunch at the Three Broomsticks and then taking me around to what he thinks are my favorite places. All while he clings to my hand and shoves his tongue down my throat.

She gave a sigh that had nothing to do with the stated of relaxation she was in and everything to do with the disgust at the thought of dealing with Finn's advances. She liked him, she really did, just not when he got pushy. She'd never tell anyone, especially the boys, but he got like that sometimes.

"Well that sounds absolutely disgusting. Why would you want his tongue down your throat or him touching your hand?" Sirius smiled as Ryan giggled, but inside he was boiling. He knew what Finn had in mind from proving his 'love' to Ryan and it made Sirius want to kill him. He kept talking just to keep himself from tracking Finn down and doing just that. "You should definitely blow him off and just hang out with us, save yourself from that torture." Sirius said hopefully as he ran through his mental list of ways to murder Finn without spending life in Azkaban. That place gave him the creeps. Drown him in the Black Lake. All evidence would be washed away. Feed him to the Giant Squid. All evidence would be eaten. Give him a fatal bit as Padfoot. No one really questions animal attacks. On second thought, he really didn't want his mouth, even Padfoot's, anywhere near any part of that wanker's body.

"Join in on the Marauder's day of drunken debauchery?" she questioned. "As much as I would love to, and I really would, I feel like I have to at last try to make things work with Finn."

"If you're sure" he whispered in her ear and Ryan felt an involuntary shiver at his closeness. "But the offer stands, right boys." He added loud enough for everyone to hear.

James, Remus and Peter all quickly voiced their agreement that she was always welcome with them, but no one noticed the jealousy and hurt that ran through Al's eyes as none of the rest of them were invited. Tay and Peia weren't upset because they knew they were more than welcome to crash the boys' day, but Al had always been a little irrational when it came to Remus.

"Well, you know where we'll be if you need us R.P.." James said, his over-protective big brother tone firmly in place. "You too, Tay Tay." He added with a smile that immediately turned into a whimper when Tay casually withdrew her wand. With an evil smirk she flicked it and a jet of brilliant white shot out hitting James square on the chest.

Everyone froze and stared at James expectantly, the boys with outright terror and the girls with barely concealed glee. Then, to the great amusement of Ryan, Peia, Tay and Al, the entire common room turned as James started shaking and yelling at the top of his lungs, "I am not in love with Snape!"

The whole of Gryffindor house watched in horror as James continued to shake and repeat "I am not in love with Snape" over and over. And the four seventh year girls couldn't breathe for laughter. Each had tears running down her face and was gasping for breath.

Tay's eyes lit up with mischief as she shot the same white light at Sirius, who was too busy staring at James to notice until Peter tackled him off of Ryan. Shaking him viciously, Peter yelled "No, not you too Sirius. Tell me you're not in love with Snape."

Remus was brought out of his stupor by Peter's frantic yelling and managed to actually analyze the white light before it hit Peter.

"No! Pete! Not you too." James moaned pathetically. "Now the three of us are doomed to love Snivelous for all eternity." James was silent for a minute before a hopeful light appeared in his eyes. "But maybe with you and Sirius around he'll forget about me." He paused as if contemplating this for a moment before continuing; now talking to himself in a frantic whisper. "Yeah. That's it. Sirius is the pretty one so he can distract Snape." He shuddered and looked at Sirius before saying in an apologetic tone "Necessary sacrifice. I'll miss you." His eyes screwed up as he thought for a minute while finalizing his plan. "Simple is best." He nodded decisively to himself. "While Snape is busy with Sirius I'll make a break for it. I can definitely outrun Pete."

Remus turned away from the disturbing, but no less amusing, sight. "This isn't very nice Miss Zahara." He said in his best I'm-a-prefect-and-you're-not-upholding-what-I-believe-to-be-proper-standards voice. He used it often on James and Sirius with great success, but it wasn't to be confused with his now-children-you-know-we-don't-eat-the-paste-merlin-why-do-my-best-mates-have-the-mental-capacity-of-goldfish? voice, which usually ended with James and Sirius tied to a chair floating form the ceiling until they promised not to do what they were going to do. But the success of that voice was iffy, they tended to do whatever they wanted when untied.

"Whoever told you that I was the nice one Remus?" Tay asked, voice filled with mock-innocence. "I think you have me confused with Al. I'm the quiet one, and you of all people should know it's always the quiet ones with the devious minds." He just stared at her. "Oh all right. Ruin my fun."

She waved her wand again and there was a flash of beautiful blue light that drew the boys' attention to her. She looked James in the eyes and said "The next time you call me Tay Tay it won't just be a pretty light that hits you. You will spend an indeterminate amount of time being Severus Snape's bitch. Are we clear?"

"I'm not in love with Snape?" James whispered desperately.

The girls and Remus burst into hysterical laughter as Sirius jumped James and tried to beat him senseless.

"You were going to sacrifice me to Snivelous! And you weren't even cursed! Some best friend you are!"

They rolled around wrestling while James tried to explain. "It was only temporary! I was going to rescue you."

"You called me a 'necessary sacrifice'!"

"I was coming-ouch watch the family jewels-back for you!"

Sirius let out a grunt as James managed to drive his elbow into Sirius' stomach.

"Doesn't matter-no hair pulling damn it what are you a five year old girl?-friends don't sacrifice friend to greasy slimeballs."

The impromptu wrestling match continued for a few more minutes until Sirius managed to get James in a head lock.

"Say it." Sirius demanded. James struggled a little more. "Say it."

"Fine." James spat, accepting defeat ungracefully. "I swear on the Marauders that I will never sacrifice you to a Slytherin in order t save myself, even though you are the pretty one and would make a much better-" James gasped as Sirius tightened his arm around James' neck. "Okay. Under no circumstances will I sacrifice you to a Slytherin. This I swear on my honor as a gentleman and a Marauder."

To swear on their honor as gentlemen and Marauders was a big deal to the boys, just like the girls 'Promise'. When the girls Promised something they would do whatever it took to make it true. Whatever it took. They had never failed to come through for each other when Promised.

Sirius nodded his acceptance of James' oath and calmly got up and went back to giving Ryan her massage like nothing had happened.

James and Remus disappeared a few minutes later, only to return with massive amounts of food and drove the girls mad because the boys wouldn't tell them how they got it. James motioned for Sirius to get off Ryan and he pulled her into a sitting position. She looked confused until James gave her a small smile and handed her a huge white mug.

Ryan gasped in delight before carefully hugging the mug to her. She took a sip and moaned "Mmm. . . Goodness, I worship you."

James let out a chuckle. "Me or the hot chocolate?"

Ryan cocked her head to the side, contemplating. "Definitely the hot chocolate, your ego doesn't need any more inflating."

She noticed everyone else staring at her like she was insane. "What? J.J. makes the BEST vanilla hot chocolate." She said with a sigh. They were all still staring. "Don't judge me." And she brought the mug up to her nose and just inhaled, loving the smell.

Peia laughed. "Only you would like vanilla hot chocolate."

"And only James would know how to make it." Tay gave him an innocent smile and he responded with a glare.

The eight friends sat talking and laughing while they finished off all the food. When Ryan had finished her hot chocolate she lay back down and motioned for Sirius to continue her massage. The entire common room smelled like pink grapefruit and she loved it.

Some time later, Remus looked at his watch.

"Bloody hell!" Everyone looked at him. "It's two o'clock in the morning."

They were all surprised to see that the common room was completely empty except for them. Sirius couldn't believe that he had given Ryan a five hour massage.

He looked down and a heart melting smile crossed his face. The girl of his dreams, literally, was sound asleep with his pillow in a death grip. She had her face buried in it and every few seconds she would inhale deeply, breathing in his scent.

"How long has she been asleep?" he asked, not noticing that he still hadn't stopped rubbing her shoulders.

"About an hour, I'd say." Peia replied, a soft smile on her face.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

The girls exchanged a look. Tay and Al both nodded so Peia continued. "That's the . . . most comfortable, most relaxed, I've seen her in a while."

James looked confused and went to ask something but Remus kicked him and nodded towards Sirius. He was staring at Ryan, deep in thought.

"We should wake her up and go on up to bed." Al said, bringing Sirius back to them.

"No." He said firmly. "I'll carry her." He carefully turned her over and scooped her into his arms like she was the most precious bundle. Much to the amusement of the others, she took the pillow with her and resituated herself so she was hugging the pillow to her but her face was pressed into Sirius' chest. A sleepy smile worked onto her face as she inhaled the smell of him.

The girls just watched and waited for him to remember that he couldn't get up the stairs. To their surprise, Sirius stopped at the foot of the stairs, stretched his let out and kicked the bottom left corner of the third step. They were speechless when he proceeded to climb the stairs like it was nothing.

Al spun around to face the remaining Marauders and demanded "How did he know how to get past the charm?"

The boys squirmed for a minute before Peia got impatient.

"Spill. Now."

They shared an uneasy look before Remus admitted "We may have figured out the charm in second year."

"Don't be modest Remmy." James said. "Remus figured it out in second year. The rest of us had no clue and were completely lost when he explained it to us."

"Maybe but . . . but . . . James created a charm to counteract it." Remus blurted out.

James sent him a glare. Neither wanted to be the one the girls blamed for being able to get up the stairs. Peter just sat back, looking relaxed. He hadn't done anything.

"Well . . . Sirius cast the charm!" James accused, completely unremorseful at blaming has best friend was wasn't even there.

"Why did Sirius do it?" Al asked. Remus smiled to himself. He loved the way Al's nose scrunched up when she was confused.

"He was the only one powerful enough to cast it as a twelve year old." James explained.

"So you've noticed?" Peia asked quietly.

Remus gave her a look, part curious part protective. "Noticed what?"

"That if you're standing too close when he's upset it gets . . . not uncomfortable, but more . . . tingly?" Tay tried to explain.

"Tingly?" James teased, arching an eyebrow at her.

Tay just stuck her tongue out at him. Not very mature but she didn't care at the moment. She had always wanted to be able to do that and it really pissed her off that James could.

"It's his aura." Remus said. The girls were all shocked. They knew he was powerful, but powerful enough to make his aura semi-solid? That was unbelievable. They turned to Remus as he went into teacher mode. "When he's upset, his power expands and his body can't contain it. He subconsciously knows this and doesn't want to seriously hurt anyone so his aura absorbs it. That much power gives his aura a small tangibility. That's the tingle. You're feeling his aura." Remus shook his head. "He doesn't even know he does it."

Everyone was quiet as the girls absorbed this.

"Ryan tingles too."

They all laughed at Tay's phrasing but knew it was true.

"She's been like that since I've known her." James said. "But it used to be worse." The rest were all shocked at that. The tingle was pretty bad now. "I guess since she didn't know about magic ash didn't have that outlet for her power. Now that she does, the tingle isn't as strong."

They looked at Remus for confirmation but he just shrugged. "Sounds like a good explanation."

Peter made a confused noise. "But then why when they're arguing with each other don't they tingle?"

They all exchanged looks, but no one had an answer for that. The boys went up to their dorm and the girls waited there for Sirius to come down, but all thoughts were on the two upstairs.

Sirius smiled as he kicked the small spot on the stair and walked up with no problem. He was happy he didn't have to deal with the girls now that they knew the boys had free access to their room.

The girl in his arms sighed and tried to snuggle in closer to his body and Sirius felt like his heart was going to explode. He kicked open the door to the 7th year girls dorm and choked back a laugh. They could deny it all they wanted but he knew the truth now. The girl's dorm was just as messy as theirs, with Ryan's probably the messiest. Sirius walked over to her bed and reluctantly laid her down.

A small noise of protest escaped Ryan and she tried to get closer to Sirius again. When she couldn't, she buried her face in the pillow again and wrapped her small body around it.

Sirius sighed. That was his only pillow, James had stolen the rest. He softly tried to pull Ryan's arms from around it but she wasn't having it and held on tighter.

"Come on Ry," he whispered. "I need that back."

Ryan mumbled something that he couldn't understand and then rolled on to her stomach with the pillow underneath her.

"Fine. You win." He whispered and then shook his head in disbelief as a smug smirk settled on her face. "Even in your sleep you have to gloat, huh?" Sirius leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead.

"Good night Ryan Peyton. You mean the world to me."


	10. Conversations and Miscommunications

Ryan woke up Saturday the same way she had the whole week before, clutching Sirius' pillow to her face and breathing him in. The problem was the pillow was starting to smell more like her grapefruit scent than his soap and boy smell. She already had plans to sneak into his room and switch it out for the one he was using now.

Looking around she saw the other three all milling around and she pulled herself out of bed and into the bathroom. When she came out she scowled at Peia and Al, who were dressed in comfortable clothes and no makeup, hair in ponytails. The she saw Tay.

"At least someone else feels my misery." She joked.

Tay looked gorgeous. Her hair was in loose messy curls, and her eyes popped with an iridescent silver shadow and black liner. A simple clear gloss covered her lips. She had on a pretty aqua sundress with a black lace overlay from the waist up. It had thick tank top like straps but dipped low in the back. Simple black flats adorned her feet.

"Well don't you look pretty." Tay blushed and smiled before Ryan said "So girls, what will it be?"

The other three looked at each other for a minute before yelling simultaneously "White dress!"

Ryan squealed before running over to her wardrobe and pulling out said dress. She loved it. It was a simple soft white strapless sundress. It was tight at the top with a dark purple ribbon under her chest. It stayed tight until her waist, where it gently fluttered out until it stopped mid thigh.

"Wait!" Peia yelled before running to her won wardrobe and digging through it. She let out a triumphant yell and immerged from the depths with a cardigan that exactly matched the purple ribbon on her dress. Ryan hugged her and with a quick 'Thanks' put it on.

A quick wave of Peia's wand and it fit Ryan perfectly. Another quick wave and her hair was pulled on top of her head in a beautiful mass of braids and curls.

Al moved forward and with a wave of her wand Ryan had a shimmery caramel eye-shadow, dark purple liner and black mascara. There was a light pink blush on her cheeks and a bit of bronzer on her nose, forehead and chin, just enough to make her look sun-kissed.

Their attention was brought to Tay as she grumbled and searched frantically though the vanity that all four of them shared. With a triumphant yell she turned, brandishing a tube of lipstick. The shade of pink should have looked horrible on Ryan but instead it drew all eyes to her mouth in a good way.

They all looked down at her feet and were quiet for a minute before Ryan ran back across the room. She immerged from her wardrobe holding a shoe box none of them had ever seen before.

"Momma Potter gave this to me at the beginning of the summer. An early birthday present she called them."

She pulled out a pair of four inch stilettos that matched the purple of the ribbon and cardigan perfectly. All three girls let out simultaneous whistles of appreciation.

"Nice work Momma Potter." Peia said softly.

"James hates them." Ryan giggled. "He kept going on and on about how he thought his mom loved him and how could she do this to him and why would she want to make his life harder. She just laughed at him. He almost had a heart attack when I put them on and Momma P told me how fantastic my legs looked."

The girls all laughed at the thought of James' reaction.

"Well, let's go girls." Tay said with a wicked smile. "It's time to make James Potter's heart stop!"

Ryan stepped out into the common room and couldn't help her smile. James immediately started protesting.

"Absolutely not! My mother is insane. You're not leaving the tower dressed like that. I want you to take those shoes off now. They're completely inappropriate."

Sirius looked at her with frank appreciation.

"I think they're bloody brilliant."

James glared at him fiercely.

"I think you forgot some clothing."

Ryan slowly looked down before looking at James, face full of feigned wide-eyed shock. Turning to the girls she accused, "Why didn't you remind me to put on knickers?"

James' jaw dropped and Sirius' eyes nearly bugged out. Remus looked torn between looking concerned and holding back laughter at the other two.

Al and Peia were on the floor laughing and Tay was trying in vain to control her giggles.

Ryan finally took pity on James when he tried to attack Sirius yelling "Stop looking at my baby sister!"

"J.J."

"J.J."

"James!" He finally looked at her. "I was kidding. I have knickers on. I promise."

James sighed in relief and loosened his hold on Sirius' neck. Luckily he missed Sirius' disappointed look.

"And you'll put more clothes on." He said hopefully.

"No." She responded. "I look fantastic now."

And with that she and the girls flounced out of the common room, leaving the boys in shock.

"She does look fantastic." Sirius said softly, completely ignoring James' glare.

With a sigh James started towards the portrait hole. "Come on. I need large amounts of alcohol to deal with the fact that everyone is going to be staring at my baby sister."

Remus slung a companionable arm around James' shoulder, also hating the face that guys were looking at his baby doll, and headed towards the alcohol glad that for once he wasn't going to be the responsible one. This outing was designed to get his mind off his supposed heartbreak and he was going to take full advantage of it, drinking until he couldn't stand.

Sirius followed behind them, stumbling along in a Ryan induced haze and Peter brought up the rear, clearly amused by the whole situation.

The girls stopped just outside of the Great Hall and saw Finn and Hayden standing awkwardly semi-close to one another. Despite the fact that they were both Ravenclaws, and their girlfriends were best friends, they had never gotten along.

Peia turned to Ryan and Tay. "Okay." She said breaking the silence. "Do you remember the signal?" She demanded.

"Yes Peia." They chorused while rolling their eyes. When she didn't say anything, just stared at them, the girls sighed and dutifully repeated "If for any reason we want out of our dates, just tap the tattoo with our ands three times and think of our location. You and Al will come and find us and then we'll have a girls day and never, ever, tell the boys that we ditched our dates."

Peia nodded and beamed like a proud mother. "Aw, look at our little girls Al, all dressed up and going on dates." Before she could continue, said girls jumped her and attached her sides tickling her relentlessly until she conceded. "Okay, okay. Just go meet your boys."

They put smiled on their faces and stepped into the Great Hall, both completely enjoying the dropped jaw looks on their respective boy's faces when they saw them.

"You look good sweetheart." Finn told Ryan.

She smiled her thanks but tried not to wince. She despised the cute pet names in relationships. Finn insisted on calling her sweetheart, baby, honey, those types of things and she couldn't stand it. They were so impersonal, so generic, like he couldn't be bothered to remember her name. She loved it when Remus called her Baby Doll and she hadn't noticed until recently but Sirius tended to call her Brat with a teasing affection in his voice that never failed to make her stomach flip and a smile take over her face. But those were different because they were just for her.

Ryan was brought back by Finn taking her arm to lead her out of the castle. She saw Tay off to her side with Hayden's arm firmly around her waist and they shared an annoyed look. Simultaneously they raised their left hands, flashing each other their tattoos in a silent reminder to call if they needed help as well as in a gesture of goodbye.

The walk out of the castle and the ride to the village were pent in silence.

As soon as Ryan and Finn got out of the carriage they walked towards the Three Broomsticks. When they passed through the door Ryan was hit full blast by deafening noise, suffocating heat, and the claustrophobic press of too many bodies stuffing into too small a space.

"We should just go somewhere else Finn." Ryan suggested.

"No." Finn replied. "This is perfect." He grabbed her hand and pulled her into the crush of excited teenage bodies. "Come on, let's go find a table."

It took a good twenty five minutes but the finally found a table in the back corner where it was mildly quieter. Finn immediately ordered them both butterbeers without even asking her what she wanted.

Ryan looked at him surprised. He never ordered for her without asking what she wanted. He knew her well enough to know that she drink preference changed with her mood, even if he couldn't tell what drink went with which mood.

Madame Rosmerta brought them their drinks herself and Ryan smiled hugely. The bar maid had taken a liking to Ryan the first time Ryan had snuck into Hogsmeade with the boys.

"Hi Madame Rosmerta." She said happily.

"Hello Miss Ryan." Rosmerta replied equally as happy. "You escaped those hellions you call boys for the day then?" she asked as she set their drinks down.

Ryan frowned when Finn immediately grabbed his and downed half of it in a single gulp, but she pushed it to the back of her mind.

"Yeah." She said with a laugh. "They offered to let me join them but they're having a boys day so I declined."

Rosmerta nodded in understanding of what that entailed. "Why the boys day?"

"Remus is newly single so they're celebrating under the guise that he needs cheering up. But if you ask me it's just an excuse. He seemed perfectly happy to be rid of her. About time if you ask me."

"Too true." Rosmerta agreed. "She always was snotty when Remus brought her in here. Never was right for him." Ryan nodded in agreement. "Think I'll see them before they head up to the Hog's Head? I wouldn't mind seeing my boys. Make sure Remus is okay, tell him he's better off without her."

By not Finn had finished his butterbeer and was almost done with hers, but Ryan wrote it off as him being bored with the conversation. He never did get along with her boys.

"Absolutely. They said they were hitting Zonko's first and then you know they can't go a whole week without seeing you Madame Rosmerta."

Madame Rosmerta laughed and shook her head. "Let me grab you two another round and I'll leave you to your date."

Ryan and Finn sat in silence as she walked away. Finn showed no signs of breaking the quiet until Ryan finally was sick of it and opened her mouth to say something

"Here we are dear. A butterbeer for you Finn. And you Miss Ryan look like you're up to trying something new. Cherry pomegranate juice. Sweet like cherry but it's got a kick t it. I'm just trying it out but you don't look like you're in the mood for butterbeer." Madame Rosmerta gave her a wink. The barmaid knew about her drink moods also.

Ryan smiled and took a drink. "Definitely a keeper." She said immediately. "This is fantastic."  
Showing his first signs of life for the last half hour, Finn reached for his money pouch to pay for their drinks.

"These are on the house sweetie." Madame Rosmerta insisted. "I enjoy having Miss Ryan here to talk to. And experiment on."

That got a real laugh from Finn and he smiled as he slipped some coins into her apron pocket. "A tip." He said when she went to protest. "And I know Ryan enjoys it too." And before Madame Rosmerta could protest the tip Finn held out his hand to help Ryan up and, with a quick hug and a whispered "Tell then I said to be careful" from Ryan, they were out the door. As they walked through the village Ryan suddenly touched Finn's arm to get him to stop. Rocking up on her tiptoes she kissed him sweetly on the cheek.

"Thank you." She smiled up at him.

He smiled back but looked confused. "For what?"

"The tip." She said, still beaming at him. "I know you left her more than the drinks were worth."

Finn blushed a bit but shrugged. "I like her. She always greets me by name when I'm in there with my mates. How many bar madams do you think would remember a teenage boy's name?"

Ryan just said thank you again and they continued down the street, neither noticing the boys in the doorway of Zonko's.

Sirius led the way out of Zonko's after they had each spent an obscene amount of money in there. He stepped out the door and stopped short, transfixed by the sight in front of him. James and Remus were arguing over the best use of Fire Ant Powder (The Burning Will Last For Days!), and didn't notice he had stopped so they ran straight into him. Peter was close behind them and nearly sent them all tumbling into the street when he hit James.

"Damn it Padfoot. Why did you-" He broke off as he looked where Sirius was looking and stiffened.

Remus took as deep breath to prepare himself and turned to look. There was Ryan, with her hand on McGowan's arm, smiling up at him.

As they watched, she rocked up on her toes and kissed him on the cheek.

Sirius couldn't move. He couldn't breathe. He felt like he'd been hit in the chest with a bludger. She has said they weren't getting along. That she wasn't looking forward to spending the day with him. Well it didn't bloody look like she was having a bad time.

"What the bloody hell is she doing?" James yelled. "She shouldn't be kissing that wanker. She's too young to be kissing anyone. I'll kill him."

He stepped forward not noticing Sirius wasn't behind him or hadn't even heard a word he said.

Remus grabbed the back of his shirt. "Hold on Prongs, let's think about this."

"There's nothing to think about. He's breaking The Rules."

"True." Peter said. "But if you go over there and start yelling about The Rules and McGowan touching her, she'll probably murder you."

"I do like living." James muttered. "On second thought, on to Rosie's. It's been a while and she can't go more than a week without seeing me."

Sirius forced out a laugh. "She's only using you. Everyone knows it's me Rosie can't be without." He let out a small real laugh as he dodged James' punch.

"We'll just have to see about that." James said and they took off running towards the Three Broomsticks and their beloved Rosie.

They both reach the door at the same time and the small fight that broke out trying to get in first allowed Remus and Peter to catch up. James eventually gained the edge and surged through the door with Sirius on his heels, Remus and Peter following more sedately behind. Madame Rosmerta looked up as soon as the door opened and the smile that covered her face had James and Sirius both grinning smugly. She immediately stopped what she was doing and practically ran towards the boys. The grins on James and Sirius turned to shock as she blew right past them and flew into Remus' arms. He spun her around and, with a roguish grin, kissed her soundly on the cheek.

"Rosie my love, I've missed you so."

She smiled mischievously and kissed him soundly on the mouth, causing the other three's jaws to drop even further. "You, my precious boy, are better off without her. And in honor of that, the first round of your boys day is on me. Let's find you boys a table." She kept her arm around Remus waist and he flung his arm around her shoulders and walked by James and Sirius with an uncharacteristically cocky grin. When they were all seated and Rosmerta back to the table with their drinks, firewiskey for James and Remus muggle whiskey for Sirius butterbeer for Peter and gilly water for Rosmerta herself, she asked "Are you okay Remus?"

He gave her a pitiful look and even sniffed for added effect. "I think I'll pull through." The five laughed and he said "In complete honesty, I'm glad to be rid of her. I just didn't know how to do it without her making it out that I crushed her heart."

Rosmerta looked at him closely before nodding; apparently deciding that he was indeed okay. "Good. Miss Ryan said I'd probably see you and I was worried."

"Oh Rosie," James gushed. "You don't have to worry about me."

"Who said I even thought about you?" She shot back while Remus Sirius and Peter laughed hysterically.

"So Ryan was in here earlier?" James asked to get attention off him.

"Yes." Madame Rosmerta said. "She was here looking very pretty with Finn McGowan." She noticed all they boys stiffened at the name but Sirius was the worst. He looked like a little boy whose puppy died. "I loved her shoes and they looked great on her. Made her legs look miles long." She internally laughed when Remus winced and James started to mutter under his breath about 'my bloody mother'. She decided to help Sirius out. "They didn't look happy though. They sat in tense silence the only time I wasn't there with them. We spent most of the time talking about you boys." Sirius brightened at that. "And he ordered for her." They all stared at her in shock. "Butterbeer."

Sirius started laughing. "McGowan is an idiot. She wasn't in a butterbeer mood today." He thought for a minute. "She would have wanted something fruity."

Madame Rosmerta smile at how cute it was that Sirius knew Ryan that well. "Well I didn't know that she's want something fruity but I did know that she wouldn't want butterbeer. I gave her something new and she loved it. The only time she seemed happy with him was as they left. I gave them their drinks on the house and Finn tipped me more than they were worth."

"So that's why she was so happy with him when we saw them." Remus said thoughtfully.

Sirius let out a sigh of relief that Remus and peter ignored and, in a rare moment of tact, James didn't comment on. The five talked for a while longer as they finished their drinks and the boys reached for the pockets to pay Madame Rosmerta.

"No boys. It's on the house."

"Okay Rosie." Sirius said with an indulgent smile.

"And no tips either." She said firmly. All four boys opened their mouths to protest but she cut them off. "Not today. We're celebrating Remus' freedom so save your money for the Hog's Head. Besides you've left enough in tips for me over the years to cover you drinks for a lifetime." She accused.

They just smiled, unrepentant. They were already making plans to come back in a few days to make up for the free drinks.

"Well Rosie, my love," James said with a dramatic bow.

"It's been an honor to share a drink with you," Sirius continued pushing James out of the way to kiss the back of her hand.

"But alas, we must be going." Remus concluded, offering her his arm to escort her back to the bar, which she happily took.

As they stood at the bar saying their goodbyes, Madame Rosmerta said to them "Miss Ryan asked me to remind you boys to be careful. She worries about you boys so don't do anything too stupid that would upset her."

"Don't worry Rosie." Remus said confidently. "I'll keep them in line."

"I know you will my love. I'll see you soon." Rosie said with an unsubtle wink.

Remus laughed as he herded three shocked boys out of the pub and to the bar on the outskirts of the village to start their boys day.


	11. Bad Decisions and Declarations

Ryan walked into her dorm and collapsed onto the nearest bed. That brought her right next to Tay, who had apparently done the exact same thing moments before.

"How do we get talked into these things?" Tay asked with a groan.

"We're too nice for our own good." Ryan answered with a sigh. "Who do I feel guilty that I didn't have more fun?"

Tay laughed sadly. "At least 'more fun' implies that you had some fun. I had none. After all his talk about how we needed to reconnect, just the two of us, he spent the whole time talking about his friends. Then I mentioned something about James and Sirius in passing and I get 'I thought we agreed to have today be all about us, no one else.'"

Ryan saw how upset Tay was and gave her a tight hug.

"And if it wasn't enough that he did that, he said it was all my friends fault that we were have problems. It doesn't matter that you guys are always nice to him and go out of your way to include him and _his_ friends hate me and have no problem making it known. 'Your friends are why we never see each other.' 'You're too close to those guys, it's not normal.' 'Just because-' Well, it went from bad to worse then. After I got him to finally shut up, he did exactly what I thought he would.

In what part of his twisted little mind did he think recreating our first date would be a good idea? We're not the same people we were then. I no longer find it cute when he rambles on and on about things I couldn't care less about. So when he reenacted his twenty five minute ramble on the effects of microscopic something or others on Romanian Jumping Roots, I was almost ready to kill him. The last straw was when he moved to push me into the lake. The date ended with me pushing him into the lake and yelling at him that I hoped the grindylows drown him."

The other three winced. She must have been really upset to say something like that.

"I'm sorry Tay." Al said sincerely. They had honestly thought Hayden was good for Tay.

"It's okay. I'm honestly not all that upset. After a year and a half of dating, he obviously still doesn't know me at all. That hurts more than knowing it's over."

Ryan had been watching Tay the whole time and sighed. "What did he say?"

Tay gave her an innocent look. "Say?"

"What did he say Taylor?"

Tay took a deep breath, an apologetic look on her face. "Just because you're whoring yourself out to all four of them doesn't mean I need to. How'd you know?"

Ryan let out a small laugh. "You've dealt with his moronic rants and hypocritical bullshit for years. Something must have set you off for you to get that upset with him." She smiled at Tay and winked. "Plus you broke off and said it went from bad to worse."

"No one thinks that." Tay was quick to reassure her. "He's just been really possessive lately and hates it whenever I talk to anyone with a penis besides him. So he lashed out at you and that was it. He was done."

They sat in an uncomfortable silence for a moment. Tay was upset about what Hayden had said and having to tell Ryan about it and Peia and Al didn't know what to say.

Finally, Ryan had had enough. She didn't care what that prick thought of her. "You know there are no such things as Romanian Jumping Roots, right?"

That did it and all four of them broke into laughter.

"That's not the point." Tay managed to push through the giggles. Peia arched an eyebrow at her and she calmed herself enough to continue. "The point is that I don't care. I didn't care enough to listen the first time it happened and I definitely didn't care enough the second time. And he does it all the time. I don't care about the effects of wormwood in potions."

"Or the properties of the avis charm." Ryan added.

"Or the mating habits of manticores." Tay finished, a look of repulsion on her pretty face.

"That's what you and Ry get for dating Ravenclaws." Al teased.

"Well that's not an issue for me anymore." She said happily.

"What about you Ry?" Peia asked. "Is that still a problem for you?"

Ryan sighed dejectedly. "He was so sweet today." She said, sounding thoroughly upset by the fact. "Well, not at first. After we left the Great Hall, he wouldn't say a word to me. And then when I was talking to Madame Rosmerta he was all broody and distant. The only time we spoke the whole time was when we first got there. It was ridiculously packed and I said we should go somewhere else and he said it was perfect. That was the extent of our conversation for the first hour of our date." Peia, Tay and Al made sympathetic noises. "Yeah. But then we went to leave and Madame Rosmerta wouldn't let Finn pay for our drinks. He ended up tipping her at least double what they were worth. Then he was honestly confused about why I was so happy with him. He had no clue."

She smiled sweetly at the thought of Finn's actions. The girls were used to this smile, she always got it when thinking aobut her boyfriends but personally they preferred the nervous, excited one Sirius had been putting on her face lately.

"I asked him what was wrong and he said nothing and things were better for the rest of the day. He was so sweet I couldn't help but think that maybe we could get back to the way we were. Am I stupid to hope that?"

Tay hugged her close. "Of course not. It's not stupid to want things to work out if you really care about him."

"What about Sirius?" Al asked quietly. She may not really like him, but he didn't deserve to be strung along and hurt. Even if none of the other girls did, she could see how much he cared about Ryan.

Ryan sighed. "I like him but . . ." She chewed her bottom lip distractedly and the other girls hearts broke at the distraught look on her face. "We're finally friends. I don't want to ruin that by telling him how I feel and having him laugh at me."

Peia and Tay nodded in understanding and Al had to bite her lip to stop herself from point out that there was no way he would laugh at her. She didn't understand how the others couldn't see it. They thought he just wanted her but she knew better. But she kept her mouth shut and as the girls all settled in for the night, resolved to talk to one of the boys as soon as she could.

* * *

The boys stumbled into the common room late that night, long after everyone else had gone to their dorms for the night.

Peter watched in amusement as Remus tripped over a coffee table and executed a perfect somersault to land on his feet. He threw his arms in the air and said proudly "And he sticks the landing". He then proceeded to fall flat on his face as he tried to walk to the couch. James let out a peal of giggles and Sirius turned to stare at him.

"You sounded like those insipid girls that our girls make fun of just then. You know that right."

"Lies!" James proclaimed. "Everything I do is sexy and completely masculine."

Sirius looked at him disbelievingly, and James ruined the effect by letting out another series of girlish giggles. "You are mistaken Prongs. I am the unbelievably sexy and masculine one. You're the dorky and mildly endearing one."

Peter, as the only sober one, thought this bit of insight was slightly diminished by the fact that you could barely make out the words because of how slurred they were.

But in the way only a fellow drunk can do, Remus had no problem understanding. "Then what are Pete and I?"

Sirius let out one of the giggles he had just condemned James for. "You're the brainy, quiet, wounded one, and Pete is the surprising, misunderstood one."

They were all quiet for a minute as they contemplated the labels Sirius had just given them before Remus came to the conclusion that he liked them and gave a decisive nod. "Agreed." He said solemnly. "And being the quiet and brainy I have hereby decided that I am in love with Alex Carlyle and it is time she knew it."

The other three were stunned for a moment before they broke out in resounded cheers.

"That's great Moony!" James yelled, excited for his friend. He gave Sirius a look while Remus was distracted and Sirius nudged Peter, letting him know that as the only sober one it was his job to remember this in the morning. Peter nodded, accepting his mission, before Remus continued.

"And my next order of business as the brainy, quiet one" He continued in a serious voice, sitting on top of the armchair in front of the fire as if it was a throne "Is: I demand to know what's going on with you Prongs."

All three heads turned to James, who turned to look behind him, trying to see who they were looking at. He turned back to them with a look of utter confusion on his face before the light bulb went off and he realized they were looking at him and not behind him. Peter couldn't hold in his laughter. That was definitely something that was being brought up tomorrow.

"I, James Charlus Potter," He began just as regally as Remus "Otherwise known as Prongs, the dorky and mildly endearing one, want to date Cassiopeia." He finished with a flourish.

Remus and Sirius shared a confounded look, each mouthing 'Cassiopeia' and even Peter was confused for a moment before

"Wait. Our Cassiopeia? Peia?"

Remus and Sirius' jaws dropped open, the thought of it being their Peia having never crossed their minds. James nodded excitedly. "She lovely and pretty and smells good." He said dreamily, before sitting up suddenly alert. "But Marauder secret. I haven't told her yet. Or R.P.." They all nodded frantically and James went back to babbling about how warm and cuddly Peia was.

After a few more minutes listening to James ramble and seeing Sirius nodding off on the couch and Remus swaying precariously on the back of the armchair he was still perched on, Peter decided it was time to get them all into their own beds.

A near fatal trip up the stairs and a small struggle to get Sirius into his own bed and not James' later, Peter collapsed into his own bed and fell instantly asleep, knowing that the other three were going to be horrible to deal with in the morning.

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing but the girls and the plot. Unfortunately, the Marauders are not mine, I only get to play with them.**


	12. Bad News and Brooding

The next morning came far too early for Sirius. Al wasn't able to sleep, and decided that if she was up she might as well make it a productive morning and warning Sirius what happened yesterday was on the top of her list of things to do.

She walked into the boys' dorm and suppressed a giggle. Her and the girls could deny it all they wanted by their room wasn't much cleaner than the boys'. She sent a silent thanks to the goddesses that none of the boys slept with their curtains closed, otherwise she would have had to peak into each one before finding Sirius. Waking him up proved to be more difficult than she anticipated. When he didn't respond to fifteen minutes of sharp pokes and harsh whispers of his name, Al decided that desperate times called for desperate measures. With a slightly evil grin she silenced Sirius and smothered another giggle before sharply whispering "Oppungo!"

A dozen tiny yellow birds shot out of her wand and started ruthlessly attacking Sirius. He shot up out of bed and looked like he was screaming furiously. It took him a few minutes to realize he was silenced, in which Al sprawled out on Sirius' bed and watched with unholy amounts of glee. He final caught sight of her and stared at her with a murderous glare. He waved his arms around his head in the direction of the birds, in an action that clearly said 'Get rid of the birds before I torture you for hours on end!'

Al pouted slightly as she raised her want to vanish her birds. "They're adorable. Do I really have to get rid of them?" He narrowed his eyes and took another step towards her. "Fine, fine." She muttered, waving her wand.

Birds gone, Sirius continued to advance on her, a dangerous glint in his eyes. Al knew he would never hurt her, but his revenge could be absolutely miserable. She held up her hands in surrender.

"Before you start plotting my untimely demise, I have a good reason for waking you up." He arched a single, very expressive eyebrow at her. "Okay, maybe not with birds." She conceded. "But I tried everything else for fifteen minutes. If you weren't snoring loud enough to be heard in China I might have thought you were dead."

He gave her an unimpressed look before motioning to his throat. She tentatively cancelled the silencing charm on him and waited.

"You have a good reason for waking me up at" He paused, at a loss for a moment.

"5:17." She supplied him with happily.

"5:17!" He exclaimed before looking around to see if any of the others had woken up at his shout. "5:17 in the bloody morning when I have the hangover to end all hangovers. And by the way" He added in complete seriousness. "I'm far too sexy to do anything as repulsive as snoring."

Al decided to magnanimously ignore the last part. "If you didn't drink yourself into a stupor then you wouldn't have such a horrible hangover."

"Oh, don't lecture me about drinking. I know you girls can drink almost any bloke under the table."

Al smirked, unrepentant. "I never said that. We're just smart enough to keep a hangover potion on our bedside table."

Sirius' eyes lit up and he smiled charmingly.

"Oh no. I'm not giving you anything. Now get dressed. We need to talk."

Forty five minutes later, a still half asleep Sirius stumbled into the common room. He shot Al an extra glare for good measure as she stood up from a couch.

"I see the shower didn't do anything for your sunny disposition." She teased. When she got no response she sighed. "Take a walk with me."

It wasn't a question and left no room for rejections, so Sirius silently followed her out of the portrait. They wondered the school in silence for a half hour before Al sense that Sirius' patience was about to wear out.

"I don't like you." She said suddenly, without trying to soften the blunt statement. "I never have liked you." Sirius' face crumpled. He knew Ryan would never date someone her friends didn't like. Al stopped walking and stared at him for a minute before she sighed. "But I do like the smile you put on her face." She chuckled at his confused look. "Don't worry about it. Just know that as long as you never do anything to take that smile off her face, you and I will be okay."

Sirius looked stunned. "Really?" He wasn't stupid. He knew that Al despised him.

"Really." She laughed. "But you may have to wait a while. She doesn't want to hurt Finn by dumping him, so she's going to try and fix things with him."

Sirius forced himself to control his reaction to this piece of news and noticed the skeptical tone in Al's voice. "You don't think it will work?"

Al shook her head. "They're not the same people they were when they started dating. He'll never accept how close she is to James and she'll never cut James out of her life. She'll never put him in front of James and he'll never be okay with coming in a distant third, possibly even fourth or fifth, in the list of men in her life. He'll never really let her be her own person and she'll never change herself for a boy. She'll never stand idly by and let someone protect her and he'll never accept that she can take care of herself."

"There's nothing wrong with wanting to protect her." Sirius argued, knowing that that's all he wanted to do.

"No there's not. Al agreed. At his confused look she explained. "There's a difference between regular protective and controlling protective. Finn tries to protect her by telling her she can't do things, that he won't _let_ her. You just want to keep her from getting hurt." She looked at him pointedly, daring him to deny it. He just kept his mouth shut. "That's what she needs. Someone to keep her safe but still let her be free. Someone who will let her make her own mistakes and be there to pick her up afterwards and make sure she's okay without saying 'I told you so'. The kind of protective you would be."

"How do you know?" Sirius asked quietly.

"What? That you're crazy about her? Or that you'd be the right kind of protective?"

"Both." He said, still quiet, as if he were worried.

"I notice things that most people don't. Not that you're very subtle about how you feel." She saw his panicked look and was quick to reassure him. "The girls don't know. They know you want her, but not that you're madly in love with her."

After the fear left his face she could see the doubt that he could be right for her settle in and she sighed. "You know I'm not wrong about the first thing, so don't doubt me on the second."

She made a quick move, and Sirius reflexively caught the small vial she tossed at him. He looked at it in confusion for a moment before his still whiskey-logged brain allowed him to place it as a dose of the girls' extra potent hangover relief. He gave her a grateful yet questioning look. "What's this for?"

Al gave him a small, but genuine, smile. "I figured you of all people deserved a little sympathy today." She turned to walk away. "Even if it means that I have to be the one to give it to you."

She got halfway down the corridor before he called out to her.

"A.C.!" She stopped but didn't turn around. "Why do you not like me?" He was genuinely curious, having never known the reason.

She turned slowly and gave him a smile that was both innocent and mischievous. "I don't know if you know this but-" She paused for dramatic effect. "You're kind of a wanker." She gave him a sunny smile and walked away, leaving the handful of people in the corridor stunned and Sirius laughing.

Sirius downed the vial Al gave him and slowly made his to the Black Lake. He needed some time to think about what he and Al had talked about. And the more he thought about it, the more furious he became. After nearly six hours of fuming by the water his decided to make his way back to his room, knowing Peter would have woken James and Remus up by now. If he was up and pissed off, then the rest of the boys were going to have to deal with it too.

He stormed into the boys' dorm and went immediately to his own bed. That alone was enough to cause the others to stop what they were doing. Sirius never willingly went to his own bed. That he then proceeded to wrench the curtains closed and scream a silencing charm was even more alarming. He never closed the curtains and he hated silence. It reminded him too much of home.

James, Remus and Peter exchanged worried looks before Remus and Peter turned to James. He shook his head frantically before sighing in defeat when neither of them backed down. With a deep fortifying breath, James got up and walked the few steps to Sirius' bed and tentatively poked the curtains, desperately hoping there would be no movement. When the tell-tale fluttering proved that they hadn't been charmed closed, James took another breath and parted them, walking through and letting them fall closed again behind him. He was enveloped in complete darkness, as Sirius hadn't bothered to light his bedside lamp. James couldn't see his best friend, but his excellent hearing let him know Sirius was lying perfectly still on his bed. The only sound was the steady stream of barely audible expletives coming from Sirius' mouth.

James felt his way to the bed and sat softly at the foot, waiting for Sirius to say something. After about fifteen minutes of quiet continuous cursing from Sirius, James was shocked when he suddenly let out a pained scream at the top of his lungs.

It seemed to echo in the silence that followed, before Sirius ground out in a tight controlled voice "She's staying with him."

James started at him for a moment before "What?"

"Ryan Peyton is staying with that tosser McGowan." He spat out through tightly clenched teeth.

"I got the words, you wanker." James shot back. "But why? How?"

Sirius let out a breath and seemed to deflate a little from what James could tell, though he still couldn't see anything.

"I have no bloody idea. Even though she hates being around him and dreads with every fiber of her being, she's still not going to dump his arse. Something about him being sweet and not deserving to be hurt. I don't really remember, I stopped listening to the why."

James gave him a confused look. "Okay, her logic makes no sense and she and I are going to have a talk about that, but how do you know this? She wouldn't have told you herself."

Sirius let out a small, humorless laugh. "Of course she wouldn't tell me herself. A.C. told me." James' mouth dropped open and he gapped unattractively. "I know right. Ryan Peyton couldn't be bothered to tell me she wasn't going to toss the tosser, but her best friend, WHO HATES ME!, thought I needed to know so I wouldn't get anymore hurt than I already am going to be." James was still staring, dumbfounded. "She said that I didn't deserve it. That she can see how much I care about Ryan Peyton and I'm so much better for her, and that she gives me her blessing but it's not going to happen now."

"And there was no bloodshed or loss of limb?" James asked, thoroughly confused.

"Surprising, I know. But she said soothing about liking the smile I put on Ryan Peyton's face and as long as I keep the smile there we're good. Which I don't understand but she told me not to worry. She said that I was the right kind of protective."

"So that's it?" James asked. "She's staying with McGowan and that's the end of it?"

"What am I supposed to do J?" Sirius sounded thoroughly dejected. "She knows how I feel about her and yet she still is with him. I've made it perfectly clear that she's it. But that obviously not what she wants."

By then, James had moved up the bed to sit right next to Sirius and at the desperation in his voice, couldn't resist the urge to pull him into a tight hug. They stayed that way for a few minutes, Sirius soaking up the comfort James was offering, before they both flopped down to lay on the bed. "Why don't you write to Mum?" James suggested. "You know she gives the best advice and she loves hearing from you."

They lapsed into silence as they both lay there, Sirius considering James' words.

"Just don't give up on her. Please." James whispered.

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot and the girls.**


	13. Surpising Letters and Admissions

**A/N: I don't know why but the idea of writing Dorea Potter was just calling to me. So I had to give in. For the letter, Sirius' parts are in "" and the () are Dorea's thoughts and actions while reading it. Hope it's not too confusing. Let me know what you think. As always, you're welcome to leave a review with something you want to see happen and I'll consider it.**

**DISCLAIMER: As usual, I own nothing that you recognize.**

Dorea Potter jumped slightly at the tapping on her private sitting room window before she frowned in confusion. Only her kid's owls could find her in here and it was only Wednesday. Her James' letters came Monday mornings filled with adventures and pranks from the previous weekend and her baby girl wrote every Friday telling her classes, the girls, boyfriends, and all the things her boys got up to that James failed to mention. Sometimes she only knew one of the boys was in the hospital wing because Ryan told her, and she was glad that even Ryan censured what she told her, only ratting the boys out if what they did was too dangerous or exceedingly stupid. She didn't know if her poor heart could handle knowing everything her reckless, mischievous boys did.

She hurried across the room, panicking because something had to be wrong to be getting a letter on Wednesday.

The worry eased and she let out an excited childish squeal when she recognized the silvery white owl with startling blue eyes that could only belong to one person. It had been far too long since her boy had written home. People argued that he wasn't hers, but she didn't care. Sirius was as much her son as James was. She cooed to Moonshine, she had to laugh everything she saw the owl because she knew Sirius meant the alcohol when he named her and not the color, as she united the letter from her leg.

Dorea curled herself into her favorite squishy chair and readied herself for what promised to be a very entertaining read.

"Momma P,"

(She still got a warm felling inside whenever one of the kids called her that)

"It's been far too long since I've seen you, so I thought I would take the time to write and tell you how much I adore you."

(Dorea laughed delightedly here, knowing that this letter would be written in classic Sirius style, very theatric and like he was right there talking to you in person.)

"Okay, that's a lie. Not the adoring you part because I do so adore you to pieces. You're the only reason I keep Jamie boy around.

But my adoration is not the reason for this correspondence.

I, my beloved Momma P, am writing you to seek your sound advice and age old wisdom. Not that you're old or anything, just wise beyond your years.

You see I, Sirius Orion Black, am in love."

(Dorea let out a gasp, unsure how she felt about this. If it was who she was sure it was then she was so happy, but if not then her boy could ruin all her perfect plans. Plus if she was right, she was sure he wouldn't admit it to her until Christmas at the earliest.)

"As I'm sure you already have deduced since you are infinitely smarter than I in such matters, I am in love with Ryan Peyton."

("Yes!" Dorea screamed triumphantly as she did a small happy dance in her seat. All of her noise caused Charlus Potter to creep into the room, ready for anything. He smiled fondly as he saw his wife of thirty years standing on an armchair dancing happily. James may have gotten the trademark Potter looks, nearly identical to the generations before him, but he had inherited his mother's exuberance and Charlus couldn't be any happier. He was content watching Dorea continue to dance excitedly for a few more minutes before she finally noticed him.

"Oh Charlus! Our boy has finally done it!" She exclaimed from her perch on the chair.

He smiled indulgently. "What has Sirius done now dear?" He asked knowing she was talking about him. James was her baby, but Sirius would always be her boy.

"He's in love!" She shouted. "He's finally fulfilled my plans for him and admitted he's in love with our baby girl!" Charlus froze at the mention of his princess and a boy but Dorea ignored him. "And so much sooner than I anticipated. I was sure it wouldn't be until after Christmas and even then I'd have to push him to realize it." She paused for a moment a frown working onto her face. "It really is odd now that I think about it. Ryan never told me she and Finn were through and you know if she didn't, James would. And Sirius said he needed advise. What advice would he need if they were already together?"

"Maybe if you finished the letter, Sirius would tell you." Charlus suggested wryly.

"The letter!" Dorea exclaimed having forgotten all about it. With a sheepish smile she scooped it up off the floor where it had fallen and settled back into her chair. She continued the letter, out loud this time for Charlus' benefit.)

"Now that you're done with your happy dance and hopefully Pops is done mentally castrating me, (Dorea and Charlus both had to laugh at how well he knew them) there is a slight problem with this. (Dorea pouted slightly at the letter before continuing.)

"Ryan Peyton is still dating that wanker. It's unbelievable. She hates being around him but is too nice and sweet and soft hearted to hurt him, to chuck him, so Al informed me that she was going to continue torturing herself with his company.

It's not fair Momma. She knows how I feel, according to James I've been less than subtle so she has to. All this means is that she doesn't want me the way I want her. Al says to wait and it will happen eventually but I don't see it happening.

What am I supposed to do Momma?

Love and kisses, big sloppy wet ones in inappropriate places,

Your boy."

Dorea laughed delightedly while Charlus scowled.

"That boy's mouth is going to get him into trouble some day. Inappropriate kisses to my wife. I might have to kill him the next time I see him."

Dora patted his head sweetly. "Don't worry dear." She smiled wickedly. "Now that he has our girl, he'll move his big, sloppy, wet, imappropriately placed kisses somewhere else." She gave his stunned face a quick kiss before she flounced out of the room, leaving Charlus to have his fit in private.


	14. Owls and Nighttime Adventures

Breakfast was a crazy time in the Great Hall, yelling and laughter. Everyone in hall froze though to watch the progress of the distinctive bright red envelope. As it descended on the Gryffindor table the Marauders turned to each other accusingly, wondering which one had done something to deserve a howler without letting the others in on the fun. When the owl landed directly in front of Sirius they all swallowed nervously, worried it was from his mother.

"Sirius Orion Black!" echoed around the Great Hall, one hundred times louder than Dorea Potter's normal loving voice. Sirius and James shared a panicked look.

"She doesn't approve." Sirius hissed. "She and Pops are going to kill me."

James' reply was cut off by his mother's voice.

"I'm so excited for you my boy!" She squealed and all four Marauders let out visible sighs of relief. "You have no idea how long I've been planning this! Oh I'm so happy. Pops and I were thrilled when you told us. Okay, well maybe not Pops at first, but he's coming around. He'll be okay or he'll be sleeping in the quidditch shed. I've worked too hard to make this happen for him to ruin it."

The boys all laughed, knowing that Dorea would indeed make her husband sleep in the quidditch shed if he messed with her plans. One of their favorite memories growing up was when she banished him there for a whole weekend because he had stuck his fingers in the cake she had made for an important dinner and ruined it. But Momma P and Pops loved each other more than anyone else they knew. The rest of the school was shocked at the threat of Lady Potter against Lord Potter. It was unheard of for the pureblood aristocracy to behave this way.

"But as for your little complication, and while I disapprove of the names I agree with the sentiment, be patient."

Four mouths dropped open as they realized that Momma P had, in essence, called McGowan a wanker.

"It will happen. I'll send you an owl with detailed instructions later but I just couldn't wait to tell you how happy I am for you."

"Hugs and kisses to everyone, so pass them to my girls. Double hugs for you Remus, I'm so happy you're coming home for Christmas.

Love Momma P."

"P.S. My boy, we should probably keep the big sloppy wet kisses in inappropriate places between us. Pops almost had a fit when he heard, and I would hate to see James' reaction if he were to find out." Sirius winced and chanced a quick look at James. He looked distinctly unhappy.

"Then I told him that he didn't have to worry because soon your inappropriately placed kisses would move to someone else. Funnily enough, he didn't seem to find that very reassuring."

Sirius slowly inched away from James as he saw Momma P's last comment sink in.

"Inappropriate placed . . . someone else . . ." James mumbled and Sirius, in self-preservation mode, jumped up from the table three seconds before James reached for him.

"There haven't been any kisses!" Sirius was quick to try and clarify.

James slumped in his seat and took a deep breath.

The letter exploded into a shower of red confetti and gold sparkles and the boys all smiled fondly at the thought of Momma P.

"Why does it not surprise me that our mother has been planning this for years?" They all nodded and went back to breakfast, Sirius bouncing in his seat, impatient for his instructions.

* * *

After classes let out for the day, the girls spent the rest of the night hanging out just the four of them, laughing and talking excitedly about the following night when they would once again sneak out to explore the Forbidden Forest in there animagus forms.

They had started working so hard at the beginning of their second year to figure out how to make the transformation. The seed had been planted the very first time they had seen McGonagall transform into her tabby cat. Peia and Ryan had looked at each other with excitement and mischief in their eyes. They had turned to Al and Tay to see Al already pleading to Tay with her eyes. Tay had made the mistake of looking back at Peia and Ryan and they both added their puppy dog eyes to the cause.

Tay had held fast to her refusal for a week before she finally broke and conceded with one condition. That they wait at least a year before starting so that they knew more and had a better chance of not dying.

So second year had found the four practically living in the library while they tried to figure it out.

Finally, after seven months of endless books from the library and Flourish and Blotts, and even a few secret trips into the restricted section, they had been ready to brew the potion, cast the charm and attempt the transformation.

March had passed, as had April and May and none of them made any progress in the actual transformation.

Finally, a week before they had left for the summer, Tay had managed to become a beautiful red and gold phoenix. That seemed to break whatever was holding them back, because within the next week Al turned into a tiny reddish brown vixen, Peia turned into an adorable orange tiger cub with thin black stripes, and Ryan transformed into a small tan cheetah cub with tiny spots.

Now they tried to go out at least once a month to just have fun and be carefree again.

An hour before sunset they snuck out. Over the years they had worked out a system and they had never been caught sneaking in or out of the castle. They met by the lake and transformed by the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

It seemed like way too long since the girls had been out like this. Way longer than just two weeks. She noticed a beautiful phoenix sitting on a tree stump not paying any attention to the other three animals and decided to have some fun. Silently, she snuck up behind the bird and then, not even two inches from the bird's neck, she let out a surprisingly fierce growl for someone so small and snapped her teeth.

The phoenix let out an ear-splitting screech and dove forward before turning sharply to the left and rising twenty feet in the air.

She turned again to look at what had cared her and shook her head. If she didn't know better, it would have been the oddest thing she had ever seen.

Ryan had collapsed onto the ground. Her stomach was convulsing with silent laughter and every once in a while little whimpers would escape her throat. Her back paws were flailing around chaotically while her front paws were resting on her stomach, just like her hands did when she laughed too hard as a human.

The four animals continued to chase each other and explore throughout the night until two hours before sunrise, when they collapsed at the edge of the lake, exhausted. Suddenly there was a loud howl about half a mile to their left, startling them all. They shared a look before getting to their feet and huddling close together. The howl sounded again, closer this time. The third time it sounded right on top of them and Ryan cursed herself for her stupidity. She couldn't believe she hadn't thought about the full moon. Remus would never forgive her if he ever found out.

As she turned to try and get the other three to run for the castle there was a loud crash behind her and she saw the girls freeze. She slowly turned to see a huge tan wolf stalking them with his eyes from the edge of the forest. Ryan took a slow step forward, putting herself between the wolf and her girls, and let out the most menacing growl she was capable of. Remus tilted his head to the side and started at her, almost as if in consideration. She never broke eye contact with him but from her periphery vision saw a giant stag and a great black dog emerge from the forest to stand on either side of him. She tensed slightly. She knew if it came down to it she could distract Remus for long enough for the girls to get away but these two were troublesome. She didn't know how they came to be with Remus but they were unknown factors and she didn't like it.

The stag and dog almost looked to be watching her as warily as she was them. Ryan mentally shook herself. That was impossible, animals didn't act like that. She listened behind her intently and was relieved to hear that the girls were slowly making their way towards safety. Turning her attention back to Remus, she saw him lean forward slightly and sniff the air. Standing up, he continued to stare at her as he took a step forward, still sniffing, followed by another and then another, the stag and dog keeping pace by his side.

When he was only about fifteen feet away, an easy lunge for a werewolf, Ryan let out a tiny whine and he stopped immediately. The dog took another step towards her and Remus let out a low, threatening growl and the dog immediately stepped back. Ryan curled herself into a small ball and let out a sting of whimpers. Remus took another small step forward and sniffed again and Ryan looked into his eyes. She knew it was crazy because it wasn't possible, but looking in his eyes she knew without a doubt that he recognized her.

She slowly inched her way a little closer to him, wary of the animals on either side of him, but she did let out an odd noise that sounded strangely like a snicker when she saw there was a rat on the back of the stag. When she finally reached Remus she looked up at him with her biggest and best 'please don't eat me' eyes. He let out what sounded suspiciously like a sigh and before leaning down and licking her face. She gave his nose a small lick back before she turned and ran back to the castle.

* * *

The next morning James, Remus and Peter spent most of breakfast laughing at Sirius as he waited for his letter. Sirius was so excited that he practically tackled the poor owl when he landed in front of him and he ended up with four deep bite marks for manhandling the tine bird while trying to remove the letter. By the time he succeeded he was bloody and panting and the other three were in tears from their laughter but Sirius ignored it all and ripped it open with a huge smile on his face.

"Siri-

I know you've heard it before and don't believe it, but it will happen. Just be patient. And I can guarantee that she wouldn't still be with Finn if she knew. I love my baby girl, but she's oblivious. Unless you've come out and said to her face that you love her, in simple, easily understood words, she doesn't know. She probably thinks she's just a challenge to you. Or that you don't have any feelings for her at all and it will ruin your newfound friendship if she says anything to you. She cares enough to take you in her life any way she can, even if it's not the way she wants.

My advice to you is to take it slow. Be there for her as her friend, but still be affectionate and flirty. At this point you need to let her figure it out herself; otherwise she'll always doubt it. Argue with her regularly, but not big blow-outs like you usually have. Disagree with her just because you can. It will never work if you go along with everything she says. James told me you learned the hard way not to do something just because she does. She'll just work harder to pick a fight and it won't be pretty or she'll get bored and walk away. Just be there for her. They haven't told me anything but I can tell from their letters that things between James and Ryan are tense. Just be there for her, whether it's being silent and holding her while she sorts it out or telling her she's an idiot and to let it go, be what she needs.

I love you my little boy. Good things will come to you. You'll see.

Love you,

Momma.

P.S. Watch out for Milo, he tends to bite."

Sirius slowly folded the letter and looked up to find his best friends waiting expectantly.

"I'm being patient." He said, unconvinced. "I'm patient and supportive and taking it slow. Being her friend. Just being there for her, whatever she needs.

"What?" James shouted. "Our mother is cracked.

"That's awful advice." Peter agreed. "He can't just wait around forever for her to realize McGowan's a prick."

Remus, ever the rational one, brought them back. "Maybe Momma P is right." They turned their incredulous looks to him. "Think about it. Has Momma P ever been wrong before?"

They all racked their brains trying to come up with an instance where Dorea Potter had been incorrect.

"She bought R.P. those bloody shoes. She was wrong then." James said with absolute certainty after a moment and Remus nodded frantically in agreement.

"Nah." Peter disputed. "If you two could think of it as a guy instead of brothers, you'd agree that those shoes really are fantastic on her. Half the males in Hogsmeade couldn't talk their eyes off her arse and I say half only because the other half couldn't tear themselves away from her legs."

Sirius agreed but wisely kept his mouth shut about it.

They were quiet again but no one could come up with another example.

"Maybe she is right." Sirius conceded.

"Yeah. We don't have the best record with girls." Remus pointed out. "What with you being in love with my Baby doll for years and too scared of James to admit it and all."

Sirius glared at him. "Let's not forget about you threatening slow painful castration to anyone who so much as looks at Al, but being too much of a big furry CHICKEN to tell her you're obsessed with her." He shot back.

Remus opened his mouth to deny he was obsessed. Or at least argue that he was less obsessed than Sirius, but Peter cut him off.

"And let's not forget the King of girl issues." They looked at him, confused. "James here pining after his best friend's best friend, but not even being man enough to tell his fellow Marauders."

Two heads whipped to James as Peter looked smugly on and James' eyes grew huge with shock.

"What?" Sirius and Remus demanded in unison.

"How did you know?" James choked out to Peter and he laughed at the memory.

"You announced it in the common room last night." He enjoyed the look of pure panic on James' face for a minute before putting him out of his misery. "We were the only ones in there so you can breathe again Prongs."

James sucked in a huge breath and tried to deny it.

"Wait." Remus said. "I don't remember that."

Peter laughed again. "I'm not surprised with the amount you drank last night. So I'm guessing that means you also don't remember deciding it was finally time to tell A.C. how you feel?"

"No!" Remus yelled, horrified.

"Way to go Moony!" James shouted, happy to have the attention off of him.

"Yeah." Sirius contributed. "It's about time you manned up."

"First of all, you don't have any room to talk to me about manning up. Baby doll carries your balls around in her pocket and she doesn't even know it." Remus said pointedly. "Second, that was obviously a moment of weakness. I'm NOT telling her anything. In case you've forgotten, I'm dangerous!"

"Once a month." Sirius argued, deciding to ignore the comment about the location of his balls since he couldn't really refute it. "It's no different than taking Ryan's week of PMS and shoving it all into a twelve hour window."

They all shuddered at the horrific thought and James said "Actually I think I'd take Moony over that." and Sirius and Peter nodded. Moody Ryan was a scary, scary thing.

Before Remus could thank them for trying to cheer him up, Ryan plopped down next to him. "Just so you know," she announced, stealing Remus' toast and James' juice, "I'm being a bitch this week."

And she was totally confused when they all broke out in side-splitting laughter.

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter. Otherwise it would have ended vastly different.**


	15. Conversations and Telling Confrontations

**Bonus points for anyone who reviews with a guess as to what might happen in the next chapter and is correct. Anyone up for the challenge?**

After a week of avoiding, Remus decided enough was enough. He found Ryan in the common room talking to Peia, James and Sirius.

"Baby doll?" He said softly. She looked up and gave him a brilliant smile, no hint of hesitation or condemnation on her face. "Take a walk with me?"

She nodded immediately and stood up. He tried to keep a small distance between them, barely noticeable but definitely more than they usually had, but Ryan was having none of that. She grabbed his hand as they walked across the room and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

They walked in silence out to the grounds and turned away from the Lake to get some privacy. Ryan swung their still joined hands between them childishly and Remus couldn't help but smile at her.

As they rounded the corner to Greenhouse 12, Remus slowed slightly.

"How long have you known?" He asked quietly.

Ryan pulled him to a stop facing the greenhouse. She wrapped her arms around his waist and snuggled into his chest while he wrapped an arm over her shoulders.

"A while." She admitted, breathing in the comfort his smell offered.

They were quiet for a while, just holding each other.

"You're not running away screaming." He said, bracing himself for the worst.

"Should I be?" She asked, genuinely confused.

"I'm dangerous." He hissed down at her heatedly.

Ryan leaned back slightly to stare up at him, a pissed off look on her face. She sighed before cuddling him close again, looking into the greenhouse deep in thought.

"You see those plants in there?" She asked softly and he nodded.

"They're unique. Beautiful, complex, mysterious, compelling, powerful. They're invaluable in so many ways. But there's a reason they're in Greenhouse 12. They're dangerous to people who don't understand them. That purple on there." She pointed to a deep violet one. "Its petals are the key ingredient in the potion to cure pre-natal faerie flu."

"I've never heard of it." Remus said curiously.

"When a witch gets the flu during pregnancy, sometimes it's the faerie flu. When she sneezes, when she vomits, when she coughs: glittery faerie dust. No one knows why, it just happens. And it doesn't happen to everyone, there's no way of telling until the glitter comes out. If the mother gets it so does the baby. But it affects them differently. While the mom might be mildly uncomfortable expelling faerie dust from various orifices, she'll be fine. Like the regular flu it will run its course. It's fatal to the baby. Every time. They can't figure out why. Maybe the baby can't get the glitter out by coughing or sneezing so it backs up and they suffocate. Maybe it's poisonous to them. No one can tell. It's only in the last twenty years that the potion was created. It was a miracle. Before twenty years ago not a single baby survived the faerie flu. Now, as long as the potion is ingested within six hours of the first sign of glitter, there aren't any complications. Mom and baby are fine."

"How come I've never heard of this?" He asked, shocked.

"People don't like to talk about it. It must have been terrifying. What should be one of the happiest times of your life clouded by the fact that it could easily become the worst."

Remus was quiet, waiting for her to continue and Ryan took a moment to stare at the beautiful purple flower.

"But it's also deadly." She whispered and she felt Remus tense. "The petals are poisonous. It they're ingested in ANY form besides the faerie flu potion you'll be dead thirteen seconds after they enter your system." Remus stared at her incredulously. "There's a seed in there that can stop even the worst internal bleeding. Your heart could be cut in two and it could fix it. But only a few people have ever been able to successfully harvest it. The seeds are surrounded by fanged leaves and the plant is somehow able to tell your intentions. There's a small white flower that grows next to the seed that ensures the giver complete control over the mind of the receiver, no fighting it or chance of it fading. If you aren't completely noble in your need, the leaves will bite as you reach in and the fangs are filled with a paralytic that causes slow, agonizing death." She paused and took another deep breath. "Every plant in there, from the smallest most innocent looking daisy to the giant fanged caution orange vines, is deadly if you mess with them while ignorant. All the time." She stressed the last bit. "One night a month you're dangerous to those stupid enough to be in a forest during the full moon. And even then you've taken precautions."

Remus gave her a strange look, unsure what precautions she thought he had. He ran freely around the grounds as a werewolf. It was pure dumb luck he hadn't run into anyone yet.

"You're guard dogs." She explained as if he were stupid for not realizing it. "Or I guess guard down and guard deer." She said with a giggle.

"He's a stag, that you very much." He said haughtily, smiling at her for the first time and knowing that that was her intention.

"And we can't forget your guard rat." They both laughed at the mental picture that created. "You know they would do anything to stop you from hurting someone else."

He nodded knowing it was true.

"So I never want to hear you call yourself dangerous again. Clear?"

He opened his mouth to argue that he was but she beat him to it.

"You're like Greenhouse 12 Remus. Unique compelling and important to know how to handle. Not dangerous if you take care and are informed."

Remus looked down at her, her face set in determination and let out a sigh. She would never let him win this argument. He grabbed her in a fierce hug and kissed the top of her head.

"Love you Baby doll."

"Love you too Remus." She said content in his arms before she pulled back a little and smiled up at him, her eyes twinkling mischievously. "So can I call you my Big Bad?"

He laughed uproariously; thrilled that nothing had changed between them.

"I don't think I could deal with the broken bones that would come from the boys if they thought you were my Little Red."

She giggled before nodding seriously. "I like being your Baby doll too much to give it up anyway." She gave him one more firm hug before grabbing his hand and starting to walk again.

They walked in a comfortable silence for a few minutes before Remus' curiosity got the best of him. "So how long have you girls been talented?"

She arched an eyebrow at him. "Talented? Should I take that as skepticism of my fantasticalness? Because I've always been talented, Bad."

He snorted at the nickname he had a feeling he was stuck with, just like he couldn't make James and Sirius stop calling him Fuzzy sometimes.

"Oh no, I would never doubt your fantasticalness. We call it talented because we don't say the word. It's not quite . . ."

"Legal?" Ryan guessed and he nodded. "I get it. Registering seemed like such a long drawn out process." Then she shrugged and smiled unrepentantly. "But mostly I was just too lazy to fill out the forms and the others followed my lead." He laughed, unsurprised by her reason. "And just so you know; talented? That makes them sound like prostitutes." They laughed hysterically at the picture their minds created of James, Sirius and Peter walking around the halls in fishnets and miniskirts. "So I guess we're 'talented' too. Have been since the last day of second year."

"What?" He yelped, completely shocked. "You have the boys beat by more than two years. They didn't manage 'til the beginning of fifth."

Ryan smiled triumphantly. "Was there any doubt we're more talented than the boys?"

Remus didn't even try to answer that one correctly. "So you were obviously the tiny cheetah, and by the way licking a werewolf is probably not the smartest move if you have any sense of self-preservation."

She just shrugged. "You knew it was me by then. You wouldn't hurt me." She said confidently.

Remus marveled at her complete faith in him. "Who was who?" He asked desperately. I had been driving him crazy all week.

Ryan laughed at him, shaking her head. "Not telling."

Remus looked at her, dumbfounded. "Please Baby doll? I'm begging. I'll tell you what the Marauders are."

'Wow, he must be desperate.' She though. 'Resorting to bribery with sacred marauder information is big.'

"I don't need you to tell me. It's kind of obvious Moony." She stressed his Marauder name and he cursed internally. His only leverage had been that her natural curiosity was even greater than his. "Padfoot is the dog, Prongs the deer and Wormtail the rat." She smiled smugly. "You know for master pranksters and reasonably intelligent boys, you guys suck at secret nicknames."

"Oh, so your first thought when you heard them was 'They're three illegal animagus and a werewolf'?" He quipped sarcastically.

"Well no." She admitted reluctantly. "It took me a few days to even figure out that it was them out there that night. But once you know it's not hard to figure out."

"And you're one of five people that know, four of them being us. It's not something we tell people."

"Okay fine. I concede." He smiled and looked at her expectantly. "But I'm still not telling you." She said impishly before running up the steps of the castle they had just reached.

She knew she had no chance of out running him in a fair fight so she used every advantage she could. Dodging around people, slipping though spaces Remus' larger body never could and using every secret passage she knew. The only problem was James and the boys had been the ones that had showed them to her so she could practically feel Remus right behind her.

As she came up on the portrait of the Pink Lady, she screamed the password and dove through right as Remus caught her. Their momentum had them both ending up in a heap on the common room floor.

Ignoring what see like the entirety of Gryffindor house watching them, Remus attacked her ribs mercilessly with his fingers.

"Tell me." He demanded, smirking down at her.

"Not . . . happening." She forced out between giggles.

"You have too."

"Do not." She insisted, breathless as he continued his assault.

"I won!" He said indignant. "You conceded so I won. You have to give me what I want. It's the rules."

"But I beat you here." She tried.

"Lies! I had you outside the portrait."

"Who's lying now!" She yelled still struggling to get away.

Remus paused for a moment. "By the way, I'm reasonably certain that second year you THREW at me to slow me down is scared for life."

"I didn't throw him." She protested, still a little breathless. At his skeptical look she amended. "It was more a strong shove. And it was a good thing too. He was scrawny. Now he had incentive to grow."

A familiar bark like laugh had her looking up to see Sirius looking down at her fondly.

"Hi!" She said brightly, giving him a huge smile. "Whatcha doing?" She asked in a sing-song voice.

"Watching you and Remmy here entertain the common room." He said with a small laugh.

"Well, he's cheating!" She said indignantly.

"Really?" Sirius asked. "Did you win your argument?"

She pouted prettily up at him. "No but-"

"Not buts." He said firmly, ignoring her giggling. "Remus won fair and square. You have to tell him what he wanted to know." He sounded smug and so sure she would listen to him.

"Not. Going. To. Happen." She annunciated each word slowly and clearly while smirking at the boys. "And I should have known you would take his side."

"All for one." Sirius said loudly and the whole common room laughed when James, Remus and Peter responded with an equally loud "And one for all!".

"I should have never let you boys watch 'The Three Musketeers'. Ryan muttered darkly. "But I'm still not telling. I would never dream of telling the girls any of your secrets, so why should I tell you theirs?" She got a contemplative look on her face. "I'm like a secret vault."

Sirius and Remus shared a look that Ryan missed and she barely had time to let out a startled yelp as Sirius jumped on Remus and they both resumed the attack on her. They tickled her mercilessly as she giggled and insisted she'd never crack.

"Why is it," an annoyed voice inquired "that every time I'm in here Sirius Black is on top of you?"

All three of them were surprised to see Finn standing over them scowling and the rest of the common room cheered internally when they saw that Ryan didn't smile up at Finn the way she did Sirius.

Both boys were quick to defend Ryan but she beat them to it.

"Actually, if you paid any attention instead of _**once again **_jumping to conclusions, you'd notice that it's Remus on top of me this time." She said in a slightly condescending tone with an unholy twinkle in her eyes. "Sirius was on top of him."

"Oi!" Both boys yelled simultaneously and renewed their tireless attack of her while the entire common room besides Finn laughed.

After another minute, Ryan had tears running down her face and was gasping for breath from laughing so hard.

"J.J." She managed to choke out pleadingly.

Even though they weren't on the best of terms at the moment, he was up and across the room in a heartbeat to protect her. He hit Remus with a full frontal flying tackle that knocked all three of them off of Ryan and a good ten feet away.

Ryan scrambled frantically to the couch where Peia, Tay and Al were all comfortably situated. They quickly make room for her and turned their attention back to the highly amusing wrestling match taking place.

"You touched my baby sister!" James yelled jokingly as he tried to pin Sirius to the ground as Remus fought indiscriminately.

"Actually," Sirius chocked out as he slipped out of James' grip and fought to get his ankles free of Remus' hold. "Remus was touching your baby sister first. And more."

James abruptly stopped trying to strangle him and turned slowly towards Remus. He let out a very realistic war cry as he jumped Remus.

"You touched my baby sister!" Remus turned to Sirius for help since he was the one who sold him out but found Sirius laughing too hard to be of any use.

"She's keeping secrets!" Remus accused dramatically and this time Sirius froze along with James and all three turned to stare at her in mock hurt.

"Is it true?" James demanded in a faux betrayed whisper.

Ryan looked down in shame and even managed to work up some tears. Raising her eyes, she looked at him apologetically and breathed out "Little bit."

Sirius and Remus used the distraction of James and Ryan's theatrics to jump James in retaliation of his prior tackle.

The girls watched and giggled with delight as the three boys rolled around the common room, ruthlessly abusing each other. It continued until a well placed toss by Sirius had James rolling into Finn's legs and the entire common room froze, having forgotten he was there.

James blinked up at him innocently and Sirius, Remus and Peter waited, knowing that that look was always followed by something fabulous.

"Oh, right. Why are you here again McGowan?"

To anyone else it was an innocent and perfectly understandable inquiry but the Marauders choked back laughter at what it really was. A not quite subtle reminder that he didn't belong here. That Ryan belonged here with them and he would never have a place there.

Finn grit his teeth and fought to keep his expression neutral as he stared down at the man he resented more than anyone else. Ryan would never choose him over James and the smug set to James' mouth told Finn they both knew it. But he kept his voice even because he knew no one here saw or heard the condemnation the Marauders had for him for thinking he was good enough for Ryan.

"I'm here to see my girlfriend Potter."

"By all means, go right ahead." He smiled brightly. "She and _Sirius_," he stressed the name noticeably "and Remus were just having a moment."

He shut his mouth when Ryan kicked him none too gently in the stomach as she stepped over him.

"Goodbye James." She said pointedly before she grabbed Finn's hand and turned towards the portrait. She stopped suddenly and dropped Finn's hand and walked back to James, where was still sat on the floor watching her protectively.

She squatted down next to him and waited until he tore his eyes from glaring at Finn to look at her.

Ryan leaded down and kissed his cheek. "Eventually right?" She asked hopefully and smiled at him.

He kissed her forehead sweetly. "Eventually." He agreed and watched her skip happily over to Finn and out his sight. Out of his protection.

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing that you recognize, otherwise the world of Harry Potter would be very different.**

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait. Things are crazy at work and my brother is getting married in six month and you wouldn't think there's a lot to do yet but there's always something that needs to be done. I'll try to be more regular. Let me know what you think. And I'm always interested in what people think is going to happen. I want to know if anyone can figure it out.**


	16. Revelations and Rescues

**WARNING: THIS CHAPTER MAY CONTAIN SOME QUESTIONABLE CONTENT. IT'S NOT DETAILED SO I DON'T THINK IT WILL BE A PROBLEM BUT I'M SORRY IF IT OFFENDS ANYONE.**

**DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN THE WORLD OF HARRY POTTER. THE PLOT AND THE GIRLS ARE MY BRAIN CHILDREN BUT THAT IS IT.**

**A/N: THANKS TO RIPLEYWHITEFIRE**, **DAUGHTER OF CHAOS 98, AND STARLOVER'SLIFE FOR YOUR REVIEWS OF THE LAST CHAPTER. UNFORTUANTELY NO ONE WAS COMPLETELY RIGHT ABOUT WHAT IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN.**

**REVELATIONS AND RESCUES**

James was brought back to the present by a hand stuck in his face. He shook off the feeling that something bad was going to happen to his baby sister and grabbed Sirius' hand letting him pull him to his feet.

They walked over to the couches where Remus was already sprawled on the one facing the girls so they plopped in a tangle of limbs on the one facing the fire, each frantically scrambling to take up as much space as possible so the other wouldn't have any. After a left foot to Sirius' kidney had James claiming two-thirds of the couch, they settled down and joined the conversation.

"We've been through this Remus. Allegra Jordan isn't what everyone thinks." Peia insisted.

Remus shook his head stubbornly. "Those have to be rumors started by jealous girls. Allegra's a sweet girl."

Al and Peia tried to smother snorts as Tay arched an eyebrow.

"Those are truths." Tay said firmly. "Spread by girls who are tired of being compared to a lie. I swear if I had heard 'Why can't you be more like Allegra Jordan? She always acts like a lady.' just once more I would have killed Hayden instead of just pushing him into the Lake."

James scratched his head in confusion. He couldn't understand why anyone would want Tay to change; he thought she was amazing as is.

"She's really that bad?" Sirius asked thoroughly confused.

"Worse." Tay told them as Al and Peia nodded in agreement, knowing that the boys would take it more serious coming from Tay. She never said anything bad about people unless they absolutely deserved it. "Allegra is a slut of the worst sort. If that's how you're going to be fine, but own up to it. Don't try to pretend you're something you're not. She looks at guys like they're prey and then has the audacity to spread rumors, untrue ones, about other girls and what whores they are."

"And from the looks of it," Peia interjected "She's decided Sirius is her next victim."

They all whipped around to see Allegra sitting across the common room with her friends. She was staring at Sirius with a fierce look of hunger in her eyes. But as soon as she noticed them looking at her it was immediately wiped off of her face and was replaced with an innocent smile and a friendly wave.

The girls shook their heads in exasperation. Al leaned close to the other two and whispered "I wonder if Sami knows it was her best friend who started the rumor that she's shagging the entire Slytherin chaser line?" They giggled and the boys turned away from Allegra.

"Stupid bastard has all the luck." James grumbled in Sirius' direction with a smirk, completely oblivious to the scathing look shot at him by a suddenly furious blonde.

"Too bad Allegra Jordan is NOT the one I want to be getting lucky with." he replied.

James screwed up his face in disgust at the thought but whatever James was going to reply with was cut off as all three girls gasped and clutched their left wrists tightly.

"What?" Remus demanded watching Al closely.

They simultaneously shook their heads and slowly let out their breath before quickly sucking it back in as pain lanced through each girls wrist again. But still they stubbornly refused to say what was wrong. A particularly strong throb had Tay turning to James with frantic eyes.

"Something is wrong with Ry." They all four gave her a dubious look so she thrust her wrist out and they saw a shooting star glowing purple and the words Ravenclaw Common Room underneath it. "It's a mood ink in the tattoo." She explained quickly, wincing inwardly at the look Remus was giving her. She had hoped no one would recognize it. She winced again as another desperate stab of pain assaulted her.

Sirius was already up and halfway to the portrait with James on his heels as she shouted "Ravenclaw Common Room".

Remus, Peter and the girls followed quickly behind but nowhere near fast enough to keep up with Sirius or James. As they hurried down the corridor Remus fell into step with Tay.

"Don't think for a second we won't be discussing this later, Miss Zahara." he whispered with a meaningful glance at her wrist.

She nodded discreetly and cast a telling glance at Al and Peia who were both, thankfully, oblivious to what was happening between the two. Remus nodded to show his understanding and they focused their attention on getting to Ryan.

Sirius' mind seemed to just shut down the second Tay told them about the tattoos. He had vague recollections of James' footsteps behind him as he sprinted down the corridor but he had no solid memories between getting up off the couch and arriving outside the portrait for the Ravenclaw Common Room.

"I need to get in the common room." Sirius panted out from almost halfway down the hall.

"I cannot allow that." The portrait replied calmly.

"Please." Sirius bedded, skidding to a halt. "It's an emergency."

"I'm sorry, young sir." Sirius' heart stopped for a moment in panic. "I cannot allow you access to the chambers within without first an answer to the question."

"Okay. What's the question." he asked desperately.

"I am present in the sun but not the moon. I am found in darkness but not light. I am part of coins but not currency. What am I?"

'Oh god, oh god, oh god.' Sirius thought and closed his eyes. 'Sun, but not moon. Darkness not light. Coins not currency. What is this?' He took a deep breath and pictured the words in his mind. "The letter 'S'" he shouted frantically.

The portrait smiled as she swung open and he immediately took off inside, yelling for someone to point him to the boy's stairs.

Sirius burst into the room and felt rage like no other fill him.

McGowan had Ryan pinned to the bed and held both hands above her head with one of his. His other hand was sliding along the top of her thigh and her skirt was bunched up almost to her waist. Her legs were kicking but it was ineffective as McGowan had his legs on top of hers, holding them down. Her shirt was open and Sirius could tell that it had been ripped open from the missing buttons. The red and gold of her tie and the pretty scarlet lace of her bra contrasted with her pale freckled skin but Sirius was too enraged to even notice.

When the door had burst open it hit the wall with a resounding bang but McGowan either didn't hear it or chose to ignore it.

Ryan though, had turned her head as much as she could and Sirius felt the burning rage increase exponentially. Her eyes were huge and glittering with tears she was fighting to keep from falling.

Barely two seconds had passed since he entered the room, but Sirius didn't waste any more time. Instead of walking across the room and pulling him off Ryan, he launched himself at the offending boy and dragged McGowan off of the girl of his dreams with a flying tackle.

James rushed into the room only moments after Sirius and was greeted by total chaos. Sirius was in the corner, rolling on the floor beating the hell out of McGowan, who was trying in vain to fight back. James had never seen Sirius that mad.

He then noticed his baby sister on the bed, curled up into the tightest ball she could manage. She was shaking violently and was trying to hold back tears. As he watched, there was a startled yelp from Sirius as McGowan apparently landed his first hit. At the sound of Sirius in pain a choked sob escaped Ryan and she broke down with huge, gut-wrenching sobs and gallons of tears.

James was immediately across the room and pulling Ryan into his arms. She stiffened for a moment before clinging to him, her tears soaking his shirt. James was confused as to about why she tensed and he really looked at her. He took in the angry hand prints on her arms that her short sleeves did nothing to hide and were already starting to bruise and the buttons scattered all over the bed. He slowly pulled Ryan back from him and froze when he saw her shirt.

James drew his R.P. back to his chest and held her impossibly tight to him. He looked over to the corner. Sirius had McGowan pinned under him, facing down with a knee in his back and his face pressed into the floor.

"Padfoot."

Sirius looked up with murder in his eyes. James didn't say a word but he didn't have to. McGowan would pay for what he had done.


	17. Memories and Moving On

Remus looked up from his conversation at the sudden silence and followed the shocked looks to the girl's staircase.

The common room had gone deadly quiet as Ryan stepped down the last stair from the girl's dorms. She hadn't left the girl's dorm in six days that anyone had seen and they were shocked. She didn't look at anyone, just walked straight to the couches around the fire where her boys and the girls were sitting and everyone was shocked by what she was wearing.

She was covered head to toe, completely in clothes that she had stolen from James over the years. The sweatpants were rolled multiple times at the waist and were still so long that they covered her feet which, had they been visible, were covered in James' rainbow socks. The pants were so big on her that she had to hold them when she walked she they wouldn't fall down. The hoodie was his quidditch one; red with Potter in gold and the 13 under. It hung easily to her knees and covered her fingertips. Her hair was all shoved under a white stocking hat.

The entire common room watched with perverse interest as she walked over to the couches. There were three of them arranged in a U-shape around the fire. The eight of them had claimed them many years ago and no one had ever contested them. The couch to the left of the fire held Tay and Al while James and Sirius were sprawled on the one opposite them. Peia was collapsed on the floor in the middle of them and Remus was lying on the couch facing the fire. Everyone sat up when Ryan walked into the circle. She held out her hand to Peia without saying a word and Peia grabbed it and jumped up. All eyes were on her as they waited to see where she would take Peia and Peia just waited for the tug that would lead her. She pulled Peia over to the couch Remus had claimed and pushed her down to his right so that there was barely an inch of space between her and Remus. Ryan looked around and saw everyone watching her in surprise. They were even more shocked when she looked at Remus. He smiled and held out his arms. Jaws dropped when she practically pounced on him then proceeded to curl up in his lap like a small kitten. With Remus being as tall as he was and Ryan being so small she was easily able to fit her entire body on his lap and he wrapped his arms around her protectively. She fell back into his chest with her head on his shoulder. The only part of Ryan not connected to Remus was her left hand. While her right was wrapped around Remus' waist like he was a giant teddy bear, the left one still had Peia's in a death grip.

Everyone was still staring at her. Tay and Peia were thrilled that she was trusting a boy. James and Sirius were shocked and mildly jealous. And Al, though she would never admit it even under pain of death, couldn't stop the small spark of anger that erupted in her. And it made her sick. She knew there was nothing between Ryan and Remus, so she pushed that spark as deep down as she could, determined to smother it.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Ryan spoke, her voice startling everyone but Remus, as he was the only one that had heard her voice since she had stopped crying that night. Remus remembered the night that she had come t him perfectly.

* * *

***FLASHBACK***

It had been three nights since they had run to the Ravenclaw common room to save her from Finn. That night she had clung to James, unable to stop her hysterics but around 3 A.M. the crying had stopped. She hadn't made a sound since. That had been Friday night. It was now Monday night and Ryan hadn't left the girl's room once. Even when he, James and Sirius had snuck up there to check on her she wouldn't let them near her and didn't say a word. Peia had told them she hadn't made a sound since she had stopped crying. She didn't sleep either. Instead she would light all kinds of candles around her bed to ward off the dark and close her bed curtains so the light wouldn't keep the girls up. Curled up in a ball, she would just stare at the wall all night. Remus hadn't been able to sleep one night, so he'd just been lying there thinking about how he could help Ryan when the door had slowly crept open. Irrational as it was, he had grabbed his wand off his bedside table and laid perfectly still, ready to defend his sleeping friends. To the death if needed. He had only relaxed when he saw Ryan's bright red head stick around the door.

But he had stayed still because he was curious about what she was doing. She ran her eyes across the first three beds; Peter, James and Sirius in that order, without settling on any of them. She set her eyes on his bed, the farthest from the door, and tiptoed over towards it. She'd jumped when she had seen him awake and he could tell that she was debating walking away. Instead, she had given him a shy smile and in a small voice asked "Could I sleep with you?" He hadn't said anything, not wanting to scare her. Just nodded his head, moved to one side of the bed and lifted up the covers. She crawled in with no further hesitation and curled up by his side, left arm draped over his stomach, head on his chest. After a few minutes her trembling had stopped and Remus could no longer feel her tears falling on his bare chest.

"Why me?" Remus had asked quietly.

Ryan didn't say anything for a few minutes before she just shrugged and said "You would never hurt me."

Remus didn't want to push and ask what she meant because she had t know that James and Sirius would never hurt her. He just wrapped his arms around her tighter and let her fall asleep. She had been gone when he woke up in the morning.

The next night he had stayed up to see if she would come back. Sure enough, around 1 A.M., when the other three had been asleep for almost an hour, the door had slowly opened again. Just like the night before, Ryan stuck her head in and did a sweeping glance of the first three beds. Assured that they were indeed asleep, she sent him that same shy smile that he was growing to despise. It just wasn't Ryan. Neither said anything as he opened his arms and she climbed in. Like the previous night, they had been silent and after a few minutes the trembling and tears had stopped. Again Remus broke the silence.

"Surely you know James and Sirius would never hurt you."

"Never like that." was the immediate answer. She was quiet, almost like she was trying to find a way to put her thoughts into words. "Never intentionally. But James- he knows it hurts me when he doesn't talk to me but he's doing it anyway. And Sirius, I can't explain it any better to you than I could have Peia, but he's important to me Remus. He thinks I'm a whore. And while I'm not, maybe I did something to make people think that. Maybe I did something to make Finn-"

It was a testament to how much she trusted Remus that she didn't react violently. He had raised himself up on one elbow and was leaning over her with one hand clamped over her mouth. "Don't you EVER let me hear you say that again. You did absolutely nothing to disserve what that bastard did to you; was going to do to you. Nothing. Do you understand me?"

Ryan let out a small hiccupping sob and he gathered her in his arms again. "I know." She whispered. "I know it's not my fault. That I didn't do anything but I feel like if there's a reason, if I can understand why, that maybe it will make it better."

"Even if the reason is a lie?" Remus asked. "Because that's what blaming yourself would be."

"Maybe if I was acting like a whore without realizing it, it would explain why Sirius sees me like that. He's important." She broke herself off and took a deep breath as if trying to steady herself for a shocking conclusion. "It would be so easy to let myself fall in love with him." She turned a dull pink now. Not the full blown magenta like she had with Peia, because she knew Remus would never talk about it again unless she did.

"I've got myself convinced that I already half am."

Remus didn't say anything for fear of betraying Sirius and it looked like the end of the conversation for the night. He tightened his hold on her and he felt her relax in response. Then in a small voice already half asleep she whispered into the darkness. "And it scares me."

She had slipped out of his arms without waking him again the next morning.

That night he knew without a doubt she would be back. It followed the same routine with the sweeping glance and the hated shy smile. Remus took it as a good sign when the tears and shakes didn't take as long to calm tonight. It wasn't much of a difference but it was a difference. Remus had decided earlier that since she had trusted him that he would trust her with some things. "I'm pretty sure I'm in love with A.C." He let out a small chuckle. "Scratch that. I know I am."

She propped herself up on her elbow so she was looking down at him. She smiled almost a real Ryan smile, mega-watt and with the ability to light up a whole room, but it wasn't quite right. He swore that soon he would make that smile reach her eyes. She collapsed onto him hugging him tight. "It WILL happen. Promise.

And because he knew all about the girls rule about 'Promise' there was nothing else to say.

* * *

Remus was brought out of his memory by Ryan's hesitant voice. "How the hell does one get over something like this?" she whispered, eyes still locked on Peia.

Peia looked right back, and gave her hand a tight squeeze along with a shaky smile. "Cry." she stated simply.

Remus waited a beat before gently gripping her chin and turning her head to face him. "Laugh." He waited another beat before gently tickling one of her feet, her one weak spot. She let out a giggle that shocked everyone before elbowing Remus in the stomach.

James cleared his throat softy. When she turned to him he was thrilled to see that her eyes didn't go blank again. They stayed warm and alive. It was her eyes that had scared him the most that night. He tossed something to her and she reflexively let go of Peia and Remus to catch it. In her hands was her worn copy of The Princess Bride."Read your favorite book for the zillionth time, even though I'll never get it." He winked at her as she stuck her tongue out at him. They all got in on it then.

Al was next. "Stick pins in voodoo dolls." She said cheerfully as the boys all winced, clearly remembering the time the girls had made voodoo dolls of them 'just to see if they worked'. Needless to say they did.

"Go skinny dipping." Five sights of shocked eyes flew to Tay, but Ryan just beamed, nodding frantically.

Everyone looked at Sirius. It was his turn. "Dance in the rain." he added because he knew how much she loved it. "Jump in puddles, make mud pies."

"Get all tarted up-" James, Sirius and Remus were all glaring at Peia before she could even finish her idea. She ignored them. "-and go dancing with the girls."

"Sing karaoke like we did over the summer." Tay blanched at the thought and was quick to offer an alternative at Al's."

"Stay up all night with gossip and ice cream."

James thought back to all of the things they did growing up. "Lie out and count the stars."

"Make me a pie!" Everyone shook their head at him but Sirius knew how much Ry loved baking.

Remus shared a look with James and Sirius before adding his two cents. "Get revenge." Everyone looked at the beloved, beaten, nearly broken but slowly recovering girl in his arms and felt the same rush of desire to make someone pay. "Then there's one more thing you have to do sweetheart."

Ryan looked up at him with wide trusting eyes. "There is?"

Peia looked over at Remus, startled. He met her eye and she immediately knew that he knew. "Absolutely Ry. Eventually, after the memories fade a little and the scars don't hurt so much anymore-"

Remus broke in. "When you can smile with your eyes again, not just your mouth."

"Yes. When your eyes smile and your voice laughs . . . you have to learn to trust someone again."

She caught the pointed looks that they were both giving her that practically screamed 'Trust Sirius!' She leaned back into Remus and closed her eyes. After a minute she nodded, knowing they were right. Eventually she'd have to let a boy besides Remus close to her. Eventually she'd have to open up. Eventually she'd heal. Eventually.

**PLEASE REVIEW AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK. NO ONE IS EVEN TELLING ME IF I SHOULD CONTINUE WRITING THIS STORY. **

**DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING BUT THE GIRLS AND THE PLOT.**


	18. Big Girl Knicker and Decisive Gestures

Ryan took a deep breath and snuggled closer into Remus' protective arms.  
"Ready Babydoll?" he whispered as they stood outside the doors of the Great Hall waiting for Ryan to enter for the first time in a week.

Tay had put her foot down this morning, refusing to bring her back food from the meals and forbidding the boys from sneaking anything from wherever they got it. James, Sirius and Remus had protested fiercely but eventually capitulated to Tay's will.

"You have to do this Ry." she argued, tears in her own eyes as she watched Ryan try to hold back terrified tears, but she pushed herself to stay strong. "Do you know what you're doing by hiding in here Ryan Peyton? You're letting him win." She stared directly at Ryan. "You're telling him that he's stronger than you, that you have something to hide, to be ashamed of. You're letting that bastard win"  
So here she was; clinging to Remus and mentally cursing Taylor Zahara to Hades and back, but having pulled up her big girl knickers and ready to face her ex-boyfriend.

Ryan nodded and reached out the hand not currently holding a death grip on Remus' arm and firmly pushed the doors open. She put on her best haughty "I don't give a shite" look and strolled in confidently on the arm of one of the best looking boys in school.

Remus led her to her usual table at Gryffindor table and helped her situate herself before sweeping into a courtly bow. "It has been an honor to escort you to obtain morning sustenance Babydoll. I take your leave now to break the morning fast." He gave her a wink and swaggered confidently down the table where the other three boys immediately pulled him into their whispered conversation.

"Alright Ry?" Tay whispered as all three girls watched her closely.

She looked slowly around the Great Hall and locked eyes with Finn as he stared intently at her from the Ravenclaw table. She held his gaze for a moment before she schooled her face into a look of total indifference and turned to the girls, giving them a bid smile and dismissing him completely. And by the fuming glare he sent her way he knew it too.

"I'm fine girls." she stated confidently and they all gave her looks but Al and Peia went back to their previous conversation.

Tay looked at her for a moment longer before shaking her head in disagreement but she still leaned in close and whispered "I hope so because we have a situation."

Ryan's eyes widened and she leaned in even closer. "What's going on Tay?"

"Remus knows." she whispered and Ryan stared at her blankly. After a few eyebrow wiggles and some vague hand gestures she still looked lost so Tay sighed and grabbed Ryan's wrist. Squeezing, she hissed "He knows." and Ryan's jaw dropped as it finally registered.

"How? Are you sure?" she asked in a panic.

Tay gave a tiny nod. "He noticed _**that**_ night." she emphasized. "I had hoped that he wouldn't put it together but on the way to Ravenclaw he held me back and toldme we would be talking about this. He's been so worried about you that it has't come up, but there's no doubt that now that you're on your way to being better he'll want answers."

Ryan nodded. "We have to tell him the truth too. He won't let it go 'til he has it." They shared a look, knowing it was true and Ryan glanced at Peia and Al who were still talking, completely oblivious to the other conversation taking place. "We'll talk to him together?"

Tay thought for a minute. "Tonight." she decided. "Sirius and Peter got detention in Transfiguration yesterday and we were working with her beloved cats so she should keep them all night. And between the two of us we shouldn't have any trouble distracting James."

Ryan laughed and stood, making her way down the table to the boys, she froze a few feet from then as she realized Remus and James were both on the opposite side of the table and she wouldn't be able to squeeze herself between them. She caught Remus' eye and he smiled at her reassuringly before turning his attention back to the conversation. Ryan closed her eyes for a moment before they snapped back open. Tay was right, she refused to let that bastard beat her.

She took a deep fortifying breath before closing the final distance and wrapped her arms around Sirius' shoulders and propping her chin up on top of his head. She felt him go completely still as she said "Morning boys" in a small voice.

She couldn't stop her smile at the chorus of responses.

"Morning Babydoll."

"Hey R.P."

"Hi Ry."

"Good Morning Ryan Peyton."

With a nudge from Remus, James restarted their previous conversation leaving Sirius and Ryan to their own devices.

"How are you holding up?" Sirius whispered up to her, thrilled that she was still leaning on him.

"I'm holding." She leaned down slightly to whisper in his ear and did an internal happy dance as he was unable to suppress a shiver at her breath on his neck.

Both were so absorbed in each other that they completely missed the sly smiles Remus and James were giving them and the death glare that had returned to Ryan from the Ravenclaw table. Conversation continued as the boys finished their breakfast and Ryan discreetly kicked Remus under the table.

She jerked her head towards Tay and whispered "Talk to me and the girls tonight?" as Tay gave him a pointed look. He nodded slightly and they both turned back to the ongoing Quidditch argument before James could realize they hadn't been listening.

Breakfast finished uneventfully and Ryan started to walk out of the Great Hall, tucked securely under Sirius' arm and giggling happily at something James said, when a cold voice rang out above the everyday chatter.

"It sure didn't take long for you to move on, did it you little whore."

Before anyone else had a chance to turn around much less react, Remus had Finn hoisted in the air by his robes and the Hall went deathly silent.

"Please McGowan," he threatened in a harsh voice that the rest of the school had never heard gentle, mild-mannered Remus Lupin use. "Give me a reason to finish what Sirius started." He pulled Finn a little closer and continued in a low growl that no one had trouble hearing. "And I promise you I won't settle for just leaving you with a few bruises and no girlfriend to-"

He broke off as a small hand came to rest on his arm. He turned and saw his A.C. shaking her head.

"Not now Remus." She said softly. "You know this isn't what she wants."

Everyone saw him visibly relax under her touch and he slowly lowered Finn to the ground.

As soon as he could, Finn backed quickly out of reach and his friends immediately closed ranks around him.

"A few bruises?" one of his friends bit out. "That was more than a few bruises, Lupin. Black put him in the bloody hospital wing." He said scathingly.

By then the rest of the Marauders and the girls had come up behind Remus. Sirius quickly pulled out his wand and cast a privacy bubble around them and Finn's group of close friends. While the rest of the Hall could still see them, they couldn't hear a word that was said. It was quite possibly the only useful thing he had learned in The Most Noble and Ancient House of Black. After he finished he rounded furiously on the guy stupid enough to open his mouth, all the while keeping Ryan pressed protectively into his side.

"The bastard is lucky he got off with a few bruises. He should be thanking every god he's ever heard of that James was there because I would have happily killed him for the bruises he put on her skin." Sirius spat out, pulling Ryan impossibly close and tightening his hold.

He felt James take a step closer and was right on his back and finally noticed that he had been slowly inching closer to McGowan without even realizing it. The tiny girl in his arm was shaking and he tightened his hold to a painful point because he knew she would rather snog the Giant Squid than let McGowan see her fear.

Sirius slowly turned back towards the doors to get Ryan out of there when out of the corner of her eye, Ryan saw Finn reaching out for her. Before he could make contact she had spun away from Sirius and had the point of her wand buried deep in Finn's neck.

"You touched me without my permission once." She hissed furiously. "NEVER make the mistake of thinking you can do it again."

She turned on her heel and grabbed Sirius' hand, wrapped it back around her shoulders and together they sauntered casually out of the Great Hall.

**A/N: SO SO SORRY ABOUT THE DELAY BUT I'VE BEEN CRAZY BUSY ON TOP OF HAVING SERIOUS WRITTERS BLOCK. HOPEFULLY THIS CHAPTER FIXED THAT BECAUSE I'M REALLY EXCITED ABOUT SOME FUTURE THINGS THAT I HAVE WRITTEN ALREADY BUT HAVEN'T QUITE GOTTEN TO THAT POINT IN THE STORY. PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!**


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